Thank you very much.
Good afternoon.
My name is Serge Auclair. I am the vice-president of commercial and external relations for the St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corporation, a not-for-profit corporation under a long-term agreement with the Government of Canada to operate and maintain the Canadian assets of the seaway, a system of locks and canals between Montreal and Lake Erie.
There are 13 Canadian and two U.S. locks. In 2025, 37 million pounds of goods passed through the seaway to domestic and international markets. Key commodities include grain, sugar, fertilizer, iron ore, steel, aluminum, road salt and liquid bulk.
The St. Lawrence Seaway has the capacity to immediately double its volume, given that its capacity stands at only 50%. Container transportation is currently an option, since the seaway's current traffic is almost exclusively bulk goods.
We're pleased with the Port of Montreal's Contrecœur project. However, this project is designed for ocean shipping, not short‑sea shipping.
Providing options to the shipping industry—particularly by means of short‑sea shipping through ports such as Quebec City, Hamilton, Valleyfield and Thunder Bay—would, in turn, give shippers more options.
To this end, we need to see the Canada Border Services Agency as a driver of economic development.
We welcome the commitment by the Government of Canada in budget 2025 mandating that the Canada Border Services Agency, Public Safety, Transport Canada and Global Affairs Canada identify additional ports for container import and export designation, particularly in the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence region, such as Quebec City and Hamilton.
Moving containerized goods on the water through the seaway can help ease congestion on busy highways and rail networks across Quebec, Ontario and the rest of Canada. One Seawaymax vessel carries the equivalent of 300 railcars and close to 1,000 trucks. The seaway is part of a larger binational H2O highway network that includes Great Lakes and St. Lawrence ports. Altogether, the system generates $66 billion in economic activity by moving 252 million tonnes of cargo worth $157 billion. It supports more than 350,000 jobs and creates $23 billion in wages.
Another recent study, commissioned by the Chamber of Marine Commerce, shows that enabling containerized traffic at Great Lakes and St. Lawrence ports could bring significant economic and environmental benefits while improving supply chain efficiency and resilience, diversifying trade and reducing infrastructure costs. Mayors from the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative have also publicly called for the removal of barriers to trade and for the extension of CBSA container-clearing capacity at inland ports.
Currently, there are Great Lakes ports on the U.S. side of the network that already have, or soon will have, container-clearing capacity. These include the ports of Cleveland, Duluth-Superior, Monroe and Indiana-Burns Harbor.
Canada can leverage this type of trade‑enabling infrastructure and the support of the Canada Border Services Agency in order to move more high‑value containerized goods through its vast corridor.
The St. Lawrence Seaway is one of the original nation-building projects. We have a deep history and a future filled with possibilities. If we increase winter resiliency and expand container and energy movements, the St. Lawrence Seaway will bring added value to the economy of Canada.
Thank you for your attention.