As a result of the highlighted vulnerabilities of our supply chains coming out of COVID, we realized that we needed to build additional capacity to service the GTHA. We embarked on a project to create a transloading facility for containers that would be brought by vessel into Montreal. Then we would connect it by rail from Montreal to Hamilton and deliver those containers into Hamilton.
The containers would come off the vessel and be pre-cleared there for security reasons. Then they would be brought to Hamilton before they would be allowed to enter into the economy through CBSA clearance. What that requires is the creation of what's called a "sufferance warehouse". That sufferance warehouse would be where containers would be held in bond until they were cleared to enter into the economy.
What we applied for was the ability to create that sufferance warehouse in Hamilton. Between the Hamilton-Oshawa Port Authority and Hamilton Container Terminals, we put up all of the capital and the land resources to facilitate that. Really, all we needed was CBSA to come in to do the inspections. We were little bit dismayed that CBSA had come back on a number of occasions and said there was no business case to support that. Yet, when you look at the container growth in and out of GTHA over the last decade, it has more than doubled.
Then you look at other factors like the increasing population size and the population that we're going to see throughout the GTHA, and you realize that this container volume is going to continue to grow. We need the capacity to be able to meet that demand.
Again, we could be waiting until it's too late.