International Trade Committee on May 9th, 2024

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Kyle Seeback]

Great. Thanks very much.

Now we'll go to Mr. Baldinelli for five minutes.

[Tony Baldinelli, Conservative, Niagara Falls, ON]

Thank you, Chair.

Again, I'm going to go to Ms. Smith and the Railway Association of Canada.

Trade is critically important in my constituency in the Niagara region. Could you put a number figure on the scale of trade that would be impacted if CN or CP, or both, shut down in this potential labour disruption that's being discussed? For example, what's going to be the impact on passenger rail service?

[Lora Smith]

Certainly. The impending dispute is of grave concern. CN and CP are now negotiating. They're in the mediation period. It involves 9,000 conductors and locomotive engineers across Canada.

In addition, at CPKC, it involves 80 rail traffic controllers. That's where the passenger rail gets affected. If the rail traffic controllers are in a labour dispute, the passenger lines that travel on CP's lines will not be able to travel. This will focus mainly on Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.

[Tony Baldinelli, Conservative, Niagara Falls, ON]

Would that also impact, for example, in the GTA and the Golden Horseshoe area, Metrolinx, Go Transit and Amtrak trains that cross Niagara Falls to go to Toronto?

Would those also be impacted?

[Lora Smith]

If that is CP land, territory or tracks, yes, they would be impacted. Metrolinx owns a portion of its own trackage, but anything that follows on CP's tracks would be affected.

[Tony Baldinelli, Conservative, Niagara Falls, ON]

My being the shadow critic for tourism, how about the Rocky Mountaineer?

Would that be impacted as well?

[Lora Smith]

It would.

[Tony Baldinelli, Conservative, Niagara Falls, ON]

We're looking at a tourism operation that is struggling to come back because of the COVID pandemic and then the forest fires that have occurred.

Would that be impacted as well?

[Lora Smith]

Yes.

In fact, we had Rocky Mountaineer in town yesterday and part of today. They attended our committee meetings, our AGM and our short-line conference. We had great conversations there. They are gravely concerned. Their busy season starts around May 20, which is exactly when the labour unions will have the ability to strike. It's as of May 22.

[Tony Baldinelli, Conservative, Niagara Falls, ON]

Mr. Laskowski, I'll go to you.

In that whole aspect of labour disruptions. As you're aware, CBSA employees are in the midst of undertaking their strike votes by the end of next week. They're negotiating a contract, which is the previous contract. By the time they conclude it, it will end in 2025 and we'll have to be at this all over again. The last time there were labour disruptions, there were slowdowns at the border. We were talking about five-hour slowdowns at border crossings in Niagara.

Can you tell us the experience that the trucking association had?

[Stephen Laskowski]

During labour disruptions, the CBSA and border delays—which can be spotty at times and flowing at times—become a permanent feature. In short, it ends in a lot of frustration on the part of drivers, companies in the supply chain and added costs for everyone.

[Tony Baldinelli, Conservative, Niagara Falls, ON]

Chair, how much time do I have?

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Kyle Seeback]

You have 20 seconds.

[Tony Baldinelli, Conservative, Niagara Falls, ON]

I just want to ask a question of the Canadian Wood Pallet and Container Association.

Mr. Geffros, you had talked about the relationship or partnership that you had with the CFIA. Is that correct?

Can you explain a little more about that?

[Scott Geffros]

Yes, absolutely.

Under international rule, the ISPM 15 program that I alluded to, national plant protection organizations of signatory countries need to have domestic programs in place to ensure the phytosanitary standards of the wood packaging that moves in trade around the world.

About 20 years ago, our organization entered into a contract with two other Canadian organizations and with the CFIA to oversee the inspection portion of this in Canada. We now have somewhere in the neighbourhood of about 470 clients across the country that are engaged in manufacturing wood packaging for export. Our role, acting as an arm of the CFIA, is to ensure that there are quality and processing standards in place that ensure a chain of custody of the wood material back to the source of the heat treatment, which renders that wood safe to make these certified pallets out of.

Ultimately, this entire process ensures that wood packaging is there to be used to move products. It keeps it as the conveyance of choice.

[Tony Baldinelli, Conservative, Niagara Falls, ON]

Thank you.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Kyle Seeback]

That's it.

We'll go to Mr. Sidhu now for five minutes.

[Maninder Sidhu, Liberal, Brampton East, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

When you talk about trade corridors and supply chains, our government recognizes that efficient supply chains are important to this country. They are important for growth and for allowing businesses to reach global markets, which is why we invested over $4 billion in close to 130 projects across the country.

We heard many recommendations from the members here today.

If you can just pick one key priority, what would it be in terms of supply chain bottlenecks?

We can start from the right of the table and move to the left.

[Lora Smith]

It would be the repeal of interswitching. Interswitching was tried before and it failed. It led to a chill on investment.

We want to invest more. We want to sustainably grow and support our customers.

[Scott Geffros]

I think back to the last question about the phytosanitary standards. When I think about wood packaging, that is the most pressing thing. We need to make sure that our domestic program here is operating in a manner whereby we're moving safe product around the world. We do not have pest interceptions at our foreign borders, which then impacts the ability for our exporters to utilize our products.

I think we need to really be very dedicated here in Canada to ensure that our domestic Canadian heat-treated wood products program is well funded and operating soundly.

[Jasmin Guénette]

From the point of view of our members, we want to ensure that the critical infrastructure is available at all times to ensure goods can be sent and received at any time.

That would be our number one recommendation.

[Stephen Laskowski]

From my perspective, whether it's the newly formed supply chain office or CBSA, it comes down to what priorities in budget spending are put on efficiency and trade issues. Too often things come down to money. That's just life, except that these are all investments. Everyone around this committee table—those from industry and the politicians—say that we are a trading nation. We are a trading nation because our forefathers made investments in all of these things. We cannot lose sight of that, so we need to continue to invest and pound the table, around this table, at budget time for both departments and the overall federal budget, so that when it comes to trade—international and domestic—we make that a priority and we make other spending decisions after that.

[Jamie Deith]

In terms of bottlenecks, I believe they are interprovincial trade barriers and inconsistencies in regulatory policies across the different regions. Those are probably the biggest barriers to supply chain efficiency.

[Maninder Sidhu, Liberal, Brampton East, ON]

I'll go online.

[Jean Simard]

We would say it is to ensure the unhindered flow of goods between Canada and the U.S. These goods are essential for a lot of reasons, as they keep people working all around the country, so we have to make sure that we lessen the administrative burden and at the same time protect access to markets without undue occupation or stoppage of the infrastructure.