Thank you, Chair and members of the committee.
I'm honoured to join you today from the traditional territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tseil-Waututh nations.
These are extraordinary times for Canada. Trade rules have been upended. Canadians are feeling anxious.
Thank you to you and all your fellow parliamentarians for your service and leadership in these consequential times.
Now, there's no doubt that Prime Minister Carney's commitment to double exports to non-U.S. markets in the next 10 years is the right commitment at the right time.
Delivering on this commitment is going to require a team Canada approach and purposeful action to make more stuff like metals and minerals, wood and energy products, agri-foods, machinery and equipment; to sell more stuff to customers who want and need what Canada makes; and to move that stuff to where it needs to go reliably. As the trade-enabling infrastructure folks, that's where the Port of Vancouver comes in.
Where do we see the biggest opportunity for Canada in working to achieve this ambitious target? It's in making, selling and moving Canadian goods to the Indo-Pacific region, where 50% of global GDP will reside by 2040—China, South Korea, ASEAN nations—and the market we're here to talk about today: Japan.
The good news is that the Port of Vancouver is uniquely poised to play an outsized role in seizing this opportunity broadly and in Japan specifically. We're very pleased that you're undertaking this important study.
As context, the Port of Vancouver is Canada's largest port: bigger than the next five biggest ports combined. We're North America's most diversified port, handling about $350 billion of goods every year. Whether it's Ontario retail products, Manitoba canola, Saskatchewan potash, Alberta oil or B.C. lumber, you name it and there's a good chance we move it, and 80% of those products are already headed to non-U.S. markets. That includes Japan, our second-biggest trading partner by volume, and where key exports include metallurgical coal, wheat, canola and forestry products, as well as other products, including energy exports.
Looking back, what has enabled our exports to Japan and its neighbours? Decades of investment—about $9 billion over the past 15 years alone—have helped us move more of what Canadians make, mine, harvest and grow, with record trade year after year. With game-changing projects on the horizon, which I'll get into shortly, not only will Canadians and their businesses benefit, but customers in Japan and elsewhere will too.
As you undertake this study, there are three big opportunities from our perspective.
One, we need to invest in and build more trade-enabling infrastructure. The first step is to get game-changing projects that are ready to deliver for Canadians, like Roberts Bank terminal 2, across the finish line. This is a project that will see the creation of new industrial land and a three-berth terminal that's going to unleash an additional $100 billion a year in trade capacity. It's a project that already has its environmental assessment approvals in place and the consent of 27 first nations. It's a project that, with support from the government via the Major Projects Office, can move towards a final investment decision and early construction works. This is game-changing.
What's more, as a country, we must also invest in getting more last-mile infrastructure up and running. Think roads, bridges, overpasses, underpasses and tunnels, to ensure that as we look to double export capacity, we're staying on top of what this means for communities that have rail crossings, truck traffic and other activities passing through.
Over the past 15 years, the Canadian government has helped to invest in two major waves of rail-supporting infrastructure in this gateway, but to double exports, much more is needed. We're pleased to have recently submitted proposals to Transport Canada's new trade diversification corridors fund.
More broadly, and as we look to get more trade enabling infrastructure up and running efficiently, there’s also an opportunity to make systemic changes to our regulatory frameworks—like expanding port authorities’ permitting powers.
In Vancouver, for example, in recent years we’ve permitted substantive projects such as the Centerm Expansion Project and G3’s new grain terminal—each worth about half a billion dollars.
We run a thorough environmental assessment process including robust consultation with first nations. Critically, we deliver timely decisions—over 90% within our targets…pivotal to attracting investment. Long story short, empower port authorities to do more for Canada on permitting.
Two, we don't just need to build new projects; we need to optimize existing projects to make them more efficient and reliable. Here, we must work together to keep adopting new digital tools and tech to help partners share data and have greater supply chain visibility, all with the aim to move products faster, safer and more sustainably.
We can also do more to maximize trade capacity through projects like dredging under the Second Narrows bridge in Burnaby, B.C., which will see us slightly narrow the channel to let tankers leaving—
