Transport Committee on Sept. 24th, 2018

[Claudine Couture-Trudel]

First, we want to thank the Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities for inviting us to address the current efficiency of Canada's trade corridors. It is with great honour that we've accepted your invitation to discuss this topic.

We will start by introducing how QSL works with virtually all essential aspects of Canada's trade corridors on a daily basis. QSL is a world-class stevedore and terminal operator that provides tailor-made handling and logistics solutions. As you can see from the map we distributed to you earlier, we have a team of more than 1,300 employees who operate in over 30 terminals throughout North America. For the past 40 years, we've been at the forefront of the changing operating landscape. Most importantly, we've been at the forefront of our clients' evolving needs and considerations for integrated supply chains. Indeed, globalization and increased competition call for both greater operational cost efficiency and material flow optimization. That means a deeper understanding of our clients' supply chains as well as more agility and flexibility on our end.

We have developed a network and the complementary services to answer these needs. Our various footholds along the river and Great Lakes, access to multimodal facilities, and our new transportation consortium in eastern Canada give us flexibility in terms of available options as well as strong commercial and operational insights. It allows us to provide tailor-made material-flow solutions to our clients from one end of their supply chain to the other. By doing so, we also create value for the trade corridors. Among other examples, some major steel companies mandate us to handle and transit input and output throughout their supply chains.

[Bruce Graham]

For instance, the service provided to Stelco includes the unloading of raw materials from vessels in Quebec City, raw materials destined for the Hamilton area, where they are transformed into semi-finished products that will in turn be loaded on vessels by our team and transited towards distribution centres in Canada and the U.S., including Port Colborne, where we also operate.

[Claudine Couture-Trudel]

Integrative approaches like these wouldn't be possible without the agility and operational knowledge provided by a local approach to management. Great Lakes Stevedoring is a good example of that added local value.

[Bruce Graham]

Our local management, with our JV partners' support, favours efficient communication with local stakeholders, such as elected officials, civil servants and citizen groups. This allows us to understand better the economic communities we evolve in and to adapt quickly to local challenges and opportunities.

Our operations in Port Colborne, Hamilton and Port Weller employ 90 people in these communities. We have been socially active in the area for 20 years.

[Claudine Couture-Trudel]

I'll go back to the initial questions: Are the trade corridors efficient, and what can be done to enhance this efficiency?

First, we need to secure the baseline. This means maintaining existing port infrastructure. Investments are necessary to be able to operate on safe infrastructure and to welcome new clients.

Second, we recommend that intermodal infrastructure initiatives be increased. That is how we will bring more major manufacturing companies near the green alternative that is the seaway, and how the economic fabric around ports will further develop.

[Bruce Graham]

This means that the global commercial environment and operating landscape will most likely continue changing at a greater pace in the future. In our opinion, to stay competitive, the St. Lawrence and Great Lakes strategic trade corridor must be rooted in renewed, locally based collaboration between public and private sectors as well as long-term agreements allowing for sustainable investment in development.

[Claudine Couture-Trudel]

The standing committee and its work are key to this type of long-term strategic planning. We recognize that, and commend the House of Commons and the members of this committee. As an expert on and strategic partner of trade corridors in Canada, QSL remains at your disposal when needed.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you very much. I appreciate your sensitivity to the time.

Mr. Liepert.

[Ron Liepert, Conservative, Calgary Signal Hill, AB]

I'd like to start with Mr. Given.

In your comments, you made mention of the fact that the seaway is underutilized, and your organization supports enhancing the usage of the seaway. First of all, for background, both Mr. Jeneroux and I represent ridings from Alberta. As you're well aware, moving energy resources from western Canada to sea has been a challenge, especially in the area of pipelines. You mentioned that you would be supportive of increasing volumes, if I heard you correctly, for environmentally friendly industries.

Would you consider the possibility of moving western Canadian oil through the St. Lawrence Seaway as an environmentally friendly industry?

[James Given]

Yes, absolutely. I think some people shy away from saying it, but I don't. I'm kind of known for that. There were initiatives recently from the U.S. to make some terminals in Duluth, Minnesota, and move cargo down through the seaway. I think if you look at the safety record of tanker transportation within the seaway, you'll find it to be stellar. Our crews are trained to be the best in the world, to be quite frank. Along with the pilotage and everything else, we have the ability to move the oil. We would welcome that increased traffic to come down through the seaway, and I'm sure the seaway would appreciate it as well.

[Ron Liepert, Conservative, Calgary Signal Hill, AB]

I would like to ask a similar question of the other two witnesses. We continually hear from the environmentalists about the possibility of oil spills, and we hear, I would say, fearmongering by those who know little about moving oil on water. It seems to me that all three of you move oil on water for a living. Would you like to comment on the safety of your ability to move oil on water virtually spillage-free?

[Capt Mike Burgess]

Sure, I can comment on that.

As pilots, we provide all the safety aspects that are available with years of training, but that's also along with the Canadian crude ships. Now as I mentioned, in mine they have a pilotage certification process available. It's been improved in the last five years, and now they demonstrate their knowledge. Every ship that would carry oil would do so with every safety advantage available.

[Bruce Graham]

Certainly from the shore side, we see again that it can be done safely. The procedures are in place to handle this product and to do it in a safe manner without putting the environment at risk.

[Ron Liepert, Conservative, Calgary Signal Hill, AB]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Mr. Jeneroux.

[Matt Jeneroux]

Thank you for being here, everybody.

I'll start with you, Mr. Burgess.

We have a study here before us on large container ships on the west coast. One of the lines in that says, “The challenge to major hub ports like Vancouver is no less than 'adapt or die' since shipping lines are compelling ports to invest in modern facilities”, and it goes on. Could you comment a bit more, for my understanding, on the increased size of ships, but also on what challenges the ports, like the Port of Vancouver, are facing to adapt to that?

[Capt Mike Burgess]

With regard to the specific question on the Port of Vancouver, it would be best to wait until Wednesday. My compatriots out there would give you a much more detailed, in-depth answer to that. However, I can answer with regard to container ships on the Great Lakes here. It's been an increasing business over the last few years, and there's room for more improvements. It was good to hear earlier today that wharf 12 in the Welland Canal will start to be used to bring containers in. It's a great business to pursue. Short sea shipping is thriving, and it's a great way to minimize the traffic on the highways. We can do it safely, for sure.

[Matt Jeneroux]

I had a follow-up on the Juan de Fuca Strait, but I'll wait until Wednesday for that one as well.

To you, Mr. Given—I guess, collectively, I get to refer to both of you—within your union, can you highlight some of the interprovincial challenges you would face in going from Atlantic Canada to B.C.? Would you be able to comment on some of those?

[James Given]

Interprovincial challenges are very few. We're a federally regulated industry, so 99% of what we do is in the federal jurisdiction. Our seafarers move freely from place to place across the country to work in any area, and we make sure they're trained in all areas and all aspects of any work that they do, whether they be in the Great Lakes, the Arctic or the east or west coast.

[Matt Jeneroux]

Great. Those are my questions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Mr. Hardie.

[Ken Hardie, Liberal, Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC]

Thank you, Madam Chair. I think it's intriguing, sometimes, to hear from ground level—the people, the boots on the decks or on the docks, doing the work. What are your reflections about the efficiency of the whole system? You guys look after the ships, but especially in the case of stevedoring, you're a point at which intermodal activities start to take place. What are your observations about the efficiency of the whole machine along the St. Lawrence Seaway?

We'll start with you, Madam Couture-Trudel or Mr. Graham.

[Bruce Graham]

We believe there's good communication flow that occurs among the different groups—the pilots, the shipping lines, us—with regard to cargoes and transits and utilization of the dock. All things said, they can always be improved. There could be other things placed that would allow those things to be more flexible and provide the agility we're looking for as a company.

Stakeholders...as far as communication with ports, the seaway itself and things like that are good, but again, those things can be improved as well.

[Ken Hardie, Liberal, Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC]

I'm thinking more about what you observe. Are there undue delays, for instance, in transferring cargo? What about the fluidity of ship movements up and down the seaway? Are there constraints? Are there operational issues? We heard, for instance, that pleasure boats on the system can quite often get in the way of some of the larger vessels and that it's hard to find out where they are and what they're up to. That's just one example, but are there others?

We look at, for instance, the efficiency of the railways. Are the railways planning with the shipping companies in terms of how to deal overall with what we would hope to see as a boost in trade along this corridor, and similarly, with the provincial highway authorities?

[Claudine Couture-Trudel]

I believe the maritime networks could be used more if intermodal infrastructure were increased, as we were saying previously. Shipping is a green alternative in transport right now, and a very good one economically speaking, but the networks sometimes are not available easily enough to other users.