The Dutch ambassador came to me a number of years ago frustrated because there had been an agreement signed between the Port of Rotterdam, one of the world's leading cargo container ports, one of the gateways to northern Europe, and the Port of Vancouver. Dutch management at the Port of Rotterdam was trying to fulfill this bilateral agreement and connect with the Port of Vancouver and was so unsuccessful in trying to connect with anyone at the Port of Vancouver under this bilateral agreement that they reached out to the Dutch government to ask if it could try to rattle some chains up there to see if they could get a meeting. She reached out to a number of people, me included.
I don't know what came of that, but I thought, when I read the S&P global ranking this year, that it was no surprise we have a port that's ranked so poorly. The Port of Rotterdam would have a lot to offer the Port of Vancouver in terms of best practices, efficiencies and the like. It operates in a very complex, difficult environment and it's a top 10 or 15 port globally in volume.
I shake my head at the challenges we're facing as the government tries to roll out a pillar of the Indo-Pacific strategy and we have a port ranked almost dead last in global rankings.