Mr. Rodrigue, what about containers in a port like Thunder Bay? You certainly seem to be advocating for bringing containers to bigger ports like Prince Rupert, and then going to Chicago—which goes right through my riding as well, through Fort Frances—or bringing in really big ships with lots of containers to Halifax.
However, there seems to be profitability in smaller boats going directly from Europe. Spliethoff is currently shipping directly to Cleveland or Duluth, not through Canada. They seem to find it profitable.
There would seem to be a market. There would seem to be opportunities for economic growth there.
In addition, what about transshipment? If you bring in a lot of containers to Halifax, why not put them on a smaller boat? In my understanding, Thunder Bay could take up to 800 to 1,000 TEUs at the port. If you brought three boats a week into Thunder Bay, that's like 3,000 trucks off the Trans-Canada Highway. There are all those savings for the infrastructure. There are certainly environmental benefits in not having trucks on the road, and certainly there are safety concerns. As somebody who drives a lot on the Trans-Canada for hockey tournaments and stuff, there are a lot of transport trucks on there that I'd like to get off of it.
Don't you think there's an economic model to shipping containers through ports like Thunder Bay and other smaller ports on the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence? I'm hoping you're going to say yes.