We canvassed our members in anticipation of this appearance, asking about the impacts of the west coast strike last summer, and got reactions such as members saying that the most frustrating part of the Vancouver situation seemed to be the complete lack of understanding of supply chains in Canada. Media coverage focused on the impact to B.C., without any understanding of the volume of cargo arriving via B.C. ports, destined for inland centres…most notably southern Ontario.
This underlines a point we want to make to the committee. The victims of strikes aren't the workers, who generally get their back pay upon settlement, nor the port and labour business managers. The victims are ordinary small businesses. Nobody compensates them for their losses.
As a specific example of impacts to a forwarder's customers, who were impacted by the Vancouver situation, an importer stated that due to the late delivery of seasonal import items, they had a customer miss a deadline and the resulting order. As these goods are seasonal, they were unable to find another buyer. This customer is sitting on this inventory, and because of the money tied up in this, is unable to purchase other seasonal goods and keep their business moving forward.
From an exporter's perspective, we heard from one who had a customer who dealt with an overseas buyer on longer contracts of sale, such as 90 days to a year. As a result of the continued supply chain issues that have been happening in Canada, this buyer is now sourcing the majority of the volume from elsewhere in the world; the Canadian exporter gets a small portion of the volume they carried, and contracts of sale are on a single shipment of limited basis, such as 30 days.
There should be no doubt in anyone's mind that disruptions divert traffic; nor should you doubt that those disruptions can lead to permanent changes in shipping routes.
In a November interview, a supply chain manager in Inside Logistics made the point that in the past two years, they’ve seen east coast ports steal import volume from west coast ports as shippers looked to avoid backlogs and delays.
Now, as we look forward to the possibility of another disruption at the port of Montreal, our members are seeing shippers beginning to move away and find more reliable routings. There is no telling if these moves are temporary or permanent. We believe that Mr. Miao was asking about this last Thursday, and this is one of the most worrying aspects of service disruptions.
Inflation-related costs have driven up worker demands, while traffic has begun a significant decline, a decline that continues to this day. We fear it's going to be a difficult negotiation.
To conclude our remarks, following the west coast debacle this summer, Minister of Labour O'Regan talked about an in-depth examination of the port industry, with a focus on the future of port labour. On October 19, he issued a statement confirming that Anthony Giles and Kevin Banks have been contracted to begin the first part of this review process. Their work is due by December 31, which may be a day too late for the port of Montreal.
We see European employers and unions co-operating to ensure competitiveness and decent wages, yet in Canada we seem condemned to strikes as a requirement of negotiation. We hope and believe it's time for a better approach.
That concludes our report. Thank you very much.