Mr. Chair and members, thank you very much for inviting me to participate today.
As mentioned, I am Diane Gray, president and CEO of CentrePort Canada.
CentrePort, for those of you who don't know, is a 20,000-acre tri-modal inland port project in Winnipeg, Manitoba. It has been planned as a complete community, and it's anchored by rail, truck and air cargo shipments, multiple industrial areas for business, residential and retail components, and educational and training services. With the support of all levels of government, we've put in place the necessary infrastructure, as well as other support services, including fast-tracked land development activities.
The objective ultimately is to attract economic activity based upon an ease of doing business. COVID-19 and the subsequent disruption to our economy has clearly caused some broad-based challenges. While some industrial sectors have been hit harder than others, I want to speak about a few issues that are shared commonly by many of the companies that I connect with either directly or through organizations like the Business Council of Manitoba, the Manitoba Trucking Association, the chambers of commerce in our province, Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters and the World Trade Centre Winnipeg.
I'll briefly highlight three of these issues as they relate to the topic of today's agenda: sustainability of business and supply chains.
The first is—and, Scotty, I'm going to emphasize something you said—the importance of maintaining and enhancing the North American supply chain. Viewing our economy through the continental lens is of critical importance to Canadian business and consumers. Keeping that border open has allowed our highly integrated North American economy to continue to serve business and people.
To give you a sense of how important that is to CentrePort and to the economy of Manitoba, I'll tell you that $22.6 billion in trade moved through the Emerson border crossing south of Winnipeg last year, and that's the busiest point of entry in western Canada. As we seek to help businesses recover, we have to continue to look at how we enhance this regional advantage.
We all have examples to share of the value of our North American supply chain. That's not just Canada and the U.S. It's also french fries moving from the Simplot potato plant in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, to Mexico City's McDonald's restaurants, with those same containers and trucks returning with avocados and other produce for Canadian consumers.
The point I'm making is that the border is important to trade and to our supply chains, and what we have to do is resist protectionism to keep our largest markets open to our businesses, particularly as they pivot on customers and suppliers. That's a next big component of what I'm going to talk about.
This is a conversation that's happening in many companies, particularly manufacturing companies right now in Canada, both SMEs and larger businesses, around repatriating assembly work and the sourcing of supply to the continent. At CentrePort, we're fielding calls from companies looking for a footprint to do just that to serve their North American customers.
Yesterday, a Quebec company confirmed its decision to open an assembly and logistics facility in CentrePort to serve its U.S. clients. Part of its decision relates to concerns over an American backlash to China, so we need to be cognizant of that. However, some of it relates to the security of its supply chain. Security is an issue that I think is not just COVID-related, but it is certainly one that has currently had a real and noticeable impact on both small and large companies.
New Flyer, a company you may have heard about, North America's largest bus manufacturing company, headquartered in Winnipeg, found that delays in parts that were being shipped out of China had a ripple effect, and that backed up its entire manufacturing process. It's one of those companies currently looking at how it streamlines and pivots on its supply chain activities.
In Canada, we should be concerning ourselves with capturing as many of the repatriated opportunities as possible. The dollar right now is currently an advantage to us, but we have to ensure that we have the infrastructure and the tax rates that allow businesses to invest in our country and not just those south of us. Canada should compete on how goods are produced. Process innovation and technology are the foundation of this approach.
The other point is one that was made in the Economist a few months ago: Visibility is velocity. This speaks to the importance of revolutionizing the tracking of supply chains and it's importance to business.
The second issue I want to flag is certainty of markets and customers. Outside of food processing, most industrial businesses that produce things are being very cautious right now and are waiting to see the recovery in their order books before fully restarting.
Yesterday, Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters released some results of a study they did and it showed that over 70% of the manufacturing and export companies in our country have been impacted by COVID. With global trade challenged for the foreseeable future, certainly for finding new customers, businesses will have to look more locally and likely to potential customers on the continent.
If governments want to support the recovery of the Canadian economy, they need to be serious about Canadian technology and supporting, buying and using that technology even if it isn't the cheapest to be found. There are numerous examples of how we haven't bought from companies in our provinces, let alone our country. This includes electric buses, intelligent health care technologies and many others. Governments should lead the way through investment in and deployment of Canadian technologies wherever possible.
The third point is that e-commerce is here to stay, but does that really change anything? Certainly COVID has accelerated trends such as e-commerce adoption, distribution activity shifts and point-of-sale practices, but these were happening already. It would be good if North America's consumer goods economy isn't completely overtaken by Amazon, Walmart and Alibaba. We need to ask ourselves how we can support smaller retailers with rapid consumer goods distribution to meet market demands. There is no going back on grocery delivery either. All of these shifts will impact what the future hub-and-spoke model of distribution looks like and how localized the warehouses will need to be to meet market demands. The acceleration of technology and rapid market delivery will continue to create winners and losers in our economy.
I'll end on the suggestion that there are three main things the federal government can do to ensure the sustainability of our businesses and increase supply chain efficiencies. The first is to understand that recovery for some sectors is likely to be slow as long as companies' order books aren't full. They need help with access to capital, and in some cases, support in pivoting on markets and source products.
Second, please keep the business environment competitive through tax and other supports, including the adoption and deployment of new technologies.
Finally, continue to fund critical infrastructure to ensure that our Canadian-made, Canadian-grown or Canadian-sourced goods can reach their final destinations.
Thank you. I look forward to your questions.