Thank you very much committee members and Mr. Chair.
My name is Terry Duggan. I'm CEO of the B.C. Maritime Employers Association. I'm joined today by my colleague Eric Waltz, who's a member of the board of directors of the BCMEA, and is also the CEO of GCT, the largest container terminal operator in Canada.
BCMEA represents 58 companies on the west coast of Canada. These companies are involved in the terminal operations of the various ports and represent the shipowners and ship agents calling on those ports. BCMEA provides the labour relations, recruitment, and training for their employees.
In 2011 we signed a historic eight-year collective agreement with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. That gave us a significant advantage over our competitors on the U.S. west coast. The 6,000 longshore workers covered by that collective agreement work at Canada's Pacific ports, from the Lower Mainland to Prince Rupert and Vancouver Island.
One of our key economic indicators in the industry is how many hours are worked in a calendar year. In 2006, 2007, and 2008, we worked about six million hours in each year. When the global recession hit in 2009, we lost about 20% of that volume, but we're back. We've regained all of that and more. We reached eight million hours worked for the year that just ended, 2015.
From six million before the recession to eight million hours after the recession, those two million additional hours represent about 1,300 full-time-equivalent jobs in the waterfront industry. These are not minimum-wage, service-industry jobs. These are family-sustaining jobs with pension plans and dental coverage.
There are other family-supporting jobs up and down the supply chain, such as rail workers, miners, prairie farmers, and so on. All of this is possible because Canada is a trading nation. The BCMEA supports the Trans-Pacific Partnership because it opens markets for our customers, hard-working and innovative Canadian men and women who produce goods that the world wants and needs. Should Canada be left out of the agreement, our globally competitive firms would not have access to important Pacific markets. Canadian goods produced by Canadian workers would be at a disadvantage. That would mean fewer jobs on the waterfront, and fewer jobs for our customers across Canada.
If brought into effect, the TPP is especially good news for B.C., given our geographic position and our deep existing relationships with the markets in the participant countries.
All trade agreements contain some uncertainty, and we understand that there are sectors in the Canadian economy that have real concerns, but there's uncertainty in not ratifying the TPP and being left behind. There is uncertainty for communities like Prince Rupert, which has seen an astounding economic recovery since the massive investment in its container terminal back in 2007.
On balance, the TPP represents an opportunity that we believe Canada cannot afford to miss.
I'm going to turn the presentation over to my colleague Eric Waltz to talk about the impact of a healthy and growing Pacific gateway.