Mr. Mulcair, Ms. Gagnon, good morning.
Ladies and gentlemen, I have been the president of the Quebec Port Authority for 22 years. Here with me today is the executive vice-president, Marcel Labrecque. When I joined the Quebec Port Authority 22 years ago, the port was in a very bad state. It handled 11 million tonnes and served zero passengers. After 22 years, this year, it handled nearly 28 million tonnes—making Québec the second largest port in Canada, in terms of tonnage. Furthermore, we also served nearly 100,000 passengers.
We have a problem: we have run out of space. We need to expand. We have a three-step plan for our expansion. The first phase involves a system to improve our loading and unloading procedure, given that we are now a port of the Great Lakes, which has become the Port of Québec's source of strength over the years. That is what has made the Port of Québec so successful: the fact that we serve the American and Canadian Great Lakes. We are competing with the American east coast and New Orleans. We serve everything from the steel plants to western Canadian farmers. We truly are a port of the Great Lakes, Ontario and western Canada.
So, we have run out of space, and we plan to expand two wharfs. This absolutely crucial. We have a three-step plan. The first phase consists of outfitting the Port of Québec with more modern equipment. Indeed, when we reached the point of having no more space, ships were paying a fee of $200,000 a day. We could not allow ships to anchor. We therefore invested $30 million in a new, faster unloading system, which will allow ships to get back on the water quicker and not have to pay a $200,000-a-day fine. We ordered the new machine, it has arrived, and we are in the process of installing it, but unfortunately we could not benefit from any funding from the new infrastructure Canada program, because we had already ordered the equipment. At the time we had to borrow $30 million from the Royal Bank, and we have nearly finished installing the new machine.
As the second phase of the plan, a new liquid bulk terminal is absolutely essential, given that we provide all of Air Canada's jet fuel for Pearson International Airport. It goes through the Port of Québec. Since we have run out of space, we must build a new wharf for liquid bulk and we need to deepen our wharfs. Indeed, the success of the Port of Québec stems from the fact that it is a deep water port. As a result, Quebec can accommodate ships of up to 125,000 and 150,000 tonnes, and unload them onto lakers that sail on the Great Lakes. We currently have only one 15 metre wharf, and we need to deepen wharf 51-52 to 15 metres.
The third part of our plan consists of building two new wharfs to allow us to meet increasing business demands.
Thus, we are here this morning calling on the federal government to develop an infrastructure program adapted to the needs of Canadian port authorities, one in which the federal contribution represents 100% of the cost of structural infrastructures.
Furthermore, we are also asking the Government of Canada to acknowledge the importance of the Port of Québec to the development of Canada's international trade, by allocating a budget of $383 million over three years, funding that would allow us to complete the three aspects of phase two of our expansion project.
Thank you.