Thank you, Chair and committee members, for inviting me to speak here tonight.
My name's Michael McSweeney and I'm president and CEO of the Cement Association of Canada.
We represent five cement companies with cement manufacturing facilities across Canada. Our members are Ash Grove, Federal White, Lafarge, Lehigh Hanson and St Marys Cement. Our mission is to promote and advocate for the environmental, economic and social benefits of building with cement and concrete.
Our industry constitutes, literally, the foundation of economic growth and infrastructure. Virtually all construction across Canada—above ground or below ground—needs concrete. Twice as much concrete as any other building material combined is used. Behind water, concrete is the second most consumed commodity. For every woman, man and child globally, three tonnes of concrete are consumed each and every year.
Throughout COVID, our industry was recognized as essential as provincial officials strived to maintain the construction of infrastructure like hospitals, schools, waste water treatment facilities and public transportation networks.
Over the past five years, Canada’s economy has used approximately 45 million tonnes of cement. In the next five years, it's forecasted that Canada will consume 55 million tonnes of cement. This will yield 400 million tonnes of concrete, which is enough to fill 24 million concrete trucks. Parked bumper to bumper, those trucks would circle the globe four and a half times.
In addition to concrete and cement being indispensable, we are truly the cornerstone of Canada's economy. We have concrete plants right across Canada and in every political riding. There are 1,000 ready-mixed concrete plants, 35 concrete pipe plants, 15 cement plants, 56 precast plants, 12 insulated concrete form plants and 35 concrete block plants. Combined, cement and concrete operations generate over $76 billion in annual economic activity and employ over 158,000 Canadians.
The economic impact of our industry cannot be underestimated, particularly given the role that Canadian cement plays as a strategic export to the United States. It might come as a surprise, but 40% of all of Canada’s cement is exported to the U.S. across the Great Lakes, down the Atlantic seaboard and down the Pacific northwest coast.
All of this brings me to today's topic, which is buy America, buy American and made in America.
The U.S. and Canada have long maintained a mutually beneficial, tariff-free relationship when it comes to trading in cement. The U.S. cannot produce enough cement domestically to meet its demand. To address this gap, the U.S. imports over 16 million tonnes of cement annually, with 35% of that—almost 6 million tonnes—coming from Canada. Our two markets are completely integrated, allowing cement to move back and forth across the border to reach key markets across the U.S. Restrictions to this trade flow, in the form of buy America and buy American policies, risk damaging that long-standing integrated supply chain. With 40% of Canadian cement exported each year, a failure to exempt Canada from rising trade protectionism will result in increased costs and delayed infrastructure projects for the U.S., as well as a loss of Canadian jobs here in Canada.
This would also work against the U.S.'s buy clean agenda. If the U.S. displaces Canada's imports with imports from Asia and eastern Europe, we'll see an increased GHG emission profile of approximately 25% from the transportation of cement alone.
Given that cement is part of the integrated Canada-U.S. market that optimizes manufacturing logistics and regional demand, Canadian exports to the U.S. reduce shipping costs and greenhouse gas emissions. Canada produces one of the lowest carbon-emission cements globally and continues to pursue deeper emission reductions through many new innovations. I might add that the Canadian cement industry can easily reduce five to six megatonnes of GHGs over the next five years.
It's important that Canada make the case to the Biden administration to issue a waiver for Canadian cements as it develops its buy America/buy American plan. Canadian officials must highlight the mutually economic benefits of maintaining a free flow of trade and the importance of available and increasingly lower carbon cement, to buy clean and build back better agendas in both Canada and the United States.
Thank you very much.