International Trade Committee on Feb. 4th, 2014

[Russ Hiebert, Conservative, South Surrey—White Rock—Cloverdale, BC]

Are you suggesting that we're moving from being a commodity-based nation to more of a service-based nation in terms of our actions?

[John Winter]

I think Canada has a strong service sector regardless of free trade agreements. I work in a building not far from here. It has 12 floors, 75% of the tenants are in the mining sector, and not one of them has a business in British Columbia. They are service industries to the mining sector around the world.

Whether it is engineering, accounting, or legal services, there is a significant portion of our economy that's driven by the support for the resource sector, and that certainly is something that's in demand around the world.

[Russ Hiebert, Conservative, South Surrey—White Rock—Cloverdale, BC]

That relates to my next question, which is for Mr. Silvester.

Earlier we had a presenter make the statement that we're coming to the end of a commodities supercycle. I wasn't sure if I agreed. I don't really know the facts. I'd be curious to know if you have seen a reduction in commodity exports to Asia as it relates to this. Would you agree or disagree with that statement?

[Robin Silvester]

I struggled to see that data as well, although I would recognize that we, as Canada and as the port of Vancouver, are a relatively small component of the global commodity market. Without going into too much detail on data we haven't fully consolidated, we've just seen a record year in coal shipments through the port. I think we'll be close to a record year in grain shipments through the port. We see substantial upside opportunity for potash.

The market out there is huge, and the proportion of it that we, as Canadians, seek to access is relatively small. We are fortunate to have very high-quality resources at our disposal, and there is a lot of further opportunity.

[Russ Hiebert, Conservative, South Surrey—White Rock—Cloverdale, BC]

In your remarks you talked about how the port considers or expects the Canada-EU trade agreement to result in an increase of 20% in bilateral trade.

Have you crunched the numbers on what impact the TPP might have on your business?

[Robin Silvester]

We haven't. As my colleague from the chamber noted, that's not data we produced ourselves. It's data we've used from other sources. In the case of those numbers, actually, they're from the government itself, but what I would say is that we see evidence that would support components of that data.

For the TPP, again, we haven't done a detailed economic analysis, but we can certainly see a lot of sectors that have the potential to benefit from a reduction in barriers to trade.

[Russ Hiebert, Conservative, South Surrey—White Rock—Cloverdale, BC]

I know that the port looks at long-term planning regarding its facilities and expansion. Do you factor the successful conclusion of a TPP agreement into how you foresee the growth of the port and its facilities?

[Robin Silvester]

We haven't factored that in explicitly, but we have certainly based our forecasting on an assumption that having a favourable trade environment and having Canada perceived as a favoured trading partner continue to be parts of the way that we trade with the world. On that sort of broad-based assumption, we see substantial opportunity for growth.

[Russ Hiebert, Conservative, South Surrey—White Rock—Cloverdale, BC]

You mentioned that of the 10 nations the TPP would include, three are top trading nations for your port. What are those three nations?

[Robin Silvester]

In volume order, they are Japan, the U.S., and Chile. Interestingly, of course, South Korea, which has been part of the debate today, if it were to accede to the TPP negotiations, would eclipse both Japan and the U.S.

[Russ Hiebert, Conservative, South Surrey—White Rock—Cloverdale, BC]

Really?

Do I have time for one last brief question? It's a short question.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

Okay, be very quick.

[Russ Hiebert, Conservative, South Surrey—White Rock—Cloverdale, BC]

Is the change in our currency having an impact on volume in ports?

[Robin Silvester]

It's too early to see at the moment. We're certainly not seeing any change that we can attribute to the change in the currency at this stage.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

Thank you.

That takes us to the end, but before we end, I just have a question that's sort of on topic, sort of off-topic. It's all about the supply chain and the reliability of it and Canada's reputation.

How many ships are offshore right now waiting to be filled with grain?

[Robin Silvester]

We have about 18 in the anchorages local to the port, and I believe there are probably about another 12 in anchorages across the Georgia Strait, so the number is substantial. It's abnormally high because of the challenges of rail service over the last week, given the cold weather.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

It's because you don't have the product. It's not because you can't get them in—

[Robin Silvester]

As you say, at the moment, it's more about product availability because railcar supply has been a challenge.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

Okay.

Very good. I want to thank you for coming and testifying. It has been very good. We look forward to a tour of the port tomorrow and we're excited about that.

That draws us to the conclusion of this session.

The meeting is adjourned.