Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I saw the stuff on piracy that was presented, and it is really important for us to have the discussion here today. One of the reasons I was interested is that we have heard from artists and creators very explicitly that they're concerned about their future. I'm not sure that even resolving that is a silver bullet.
In the area I represent is a place called Sandwich Town. It's the oldest European settlement in Canada west of Montreal. It's where the War of 1812 was fought. It's where the Underground Railroad was. There were rum runners and a whole series of things. Today, though, it's challenged by economic poverty, the closure of schools, and pollution. It has one of the highest rates of poverty.
I tell you all of this because right next to Sandwich Town is the Ambassador Bridge. The Ambassador Bridge has about $1 billion of activity per day. About 35% of Canada's daily trade takes place in my riding. A private American citizen owns the Ambassador Bridge. It's right next to Sandwich Town. In fact, they actually bought up houses. They boarded them up and knocked them down. It's quite lucrative, though. Matty Moroun, who owns it, is in the top 40 billionaires in the United States, and a lot of economic activity takes place right next door.
Now we, on the other side of Sandwich Town, a new border crossing called the Gordie Howe bridge. You might have heard of it. I've spent 20 years of my life trying to get a new public crossing. It's about $4 billion to $6 billion. There is very little activity taking place in Sandwich Town from this. There are supposed to be community benefits, but we don't even know how much. Essentially, right now, it hasn't really done a whole lot for the area. We're still waiting.
In front of Sandwich Town is the Detroit River, and then we have what's called the Windsor Port Authority. The Windsor Port Authority is a multi-million dollar operation that's doing quite well on its own, but it also has this lucrative new border crossing that's going to be coming into place along with other extensive work. If the Ambassador Bridge gets to twin, which the government has provided them a permit to do, we'll receive a major economic benefit from them.
On the other side of Sandwich Town is a railway that goes to a Canadian salt mine and other operations. It's a multi-million dollar operation, but it's smaller than the others. It's not CP. It's not CN, but it's doing okay—the Essex Terminal Railway. In between all of this, what people have gotten from the multiple billions of dollars of activity around them is nothing. They have closed schools, closed businesses, and closed the post office, and they have the highest rates of poverty.
I have to say that this is what concerns me, and I feel the artists that we've heard from are in the same predicament.
Do you have any suggestions whatsoever, in the time remaining, for what you can do, other than just hoping royalties will roll in if you stop piracy, to help improve artists' compensation in Canada? Even if it's not within the jurisdiction of your own company, is there anything you can suggest to this committee?
I fail to see how ending piracy alone.... Is there something new or different? I'm open to suggestions. You may not want to answer—I don't know.
Mr. Chair, we heard about this when we did our travel, and I see that we're still going on about the same thing.
Is there anything that anybody here can offer for those individuals?