Thank you, Madam Chair.
Again, thank you and welcome to our witnesses this morning.
I'd like to thank our colleagues for undertaking this study. We all have a perspective of how it impacts the national economy. It was interesting.
A small business came in to me on Friday to discuss the challenges that they're facing with regard to getting their containers and the increased cost that is being placed on them because of the congestions and issues that they are facing. It's timely, and I thank the members for being here.
I'm probably going to follow up with Mr. MacDonald, first of all, because I'd like to relate some of the issues that my constituent has with her small business, which has been in operation for about 30 years. They're bringing in a container from Italy to the port of Montreal. It may be one container a week or it may be two or three if things are of benefit to them. They're seeing huge backlogs in Toronto, and storage fees and waiting time fees.
She wrote to me and related that just in June, because of the economy and gas prices, they were starting to see those invoices passed along to them, and that was fair enough, but then they were also starting to see in June and July that they were getting additional charges for wait times. Even though the company has agreements to be there and pick up their goods, they're being charged additional fees over and above their agreement if those companies have to wait. They're also being charged for returning empty containers that, for example, may go back to yards that have no place to put them, so the company then keeps them, and that joins these additional costs.
In fact, the business received an email in July saying, “...we ask that you suspend sending us orders until further notice. We need to clear up the current orders before we can accept any more.”
How does one do business like that? You're being asked to stop doing business, essentially.
We see these great delays. I was pleased to hear you say, Mr. MacDonald, that you've essentially cleared the Montreal backlog as of August, and you're talking about the current backlog in Toronto as almost being cleared. You talked about when you believe that will happen and what needs to occur.
Would the facility that's planned in Milton address your future operations by having those facilities and yards available, as opposed to having to immediately rent additional facilities?