Evidence of meeting #110 for Transport, Infrastructure and Communities in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was capacity.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Chair, BC Marine Terminal Operators Association
The global economic development is projected to continue. For Canada to participate in this growth, we need significant investment in trade infrastructure and marine terminal capacity. Canada's trade with the world provides the underlying support for our standard of living, social systems, and the overall well-being of our country.
Thank you.
Liberal
Zoran Knezevic President and Chief Executive Officer, Port Alberni Port Authority
Thank you. I'll time myself, just in case.
For the benefit of our Alberta friends and everybody else, I'll explain where we're located.
I come from Port Alberni, representing the Port Alberni Port Authority.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Port Alberni Port Authority
We are located in the heart of Vancouver Island, at the end of the long inlet—or deep, natural fjord—open to the Pacific Ocean. We do have a lot of answers to the concerns and problems that we are facing today, especially with the project that we are proposing to develop, a large container terminal in the Port Alberni Inlet to be used as a transshipment hub to help alleviate congestion in the Lower Mainland.
To elaborate more, each cargo ship passes in front of the Alberni Inlet when it's on its way out of the Salish Sea area. Then each cargo ship goes to Seattle to offload and load cargo and then goes to Vancouver to do the same thing, and a week or so later passes by on its way back to Asia. Once the cargo is offloaded on the Lower Mainland, it gets put on a truck that goes up and down the city streets and creates congestion and problems with traffic and commuters.
Furthermore, we are moving a lot of cargo by rail as well. Alberta is a bit of a culprit in that too. It moves a lot of cargo to distribution centres in Calgary and Edmonton to be offloaded, and then the empty containers are brought back, congesting our railway to a degree. Those distribution centres have been moved to Calgary and Edmonton because of the lack of space and the cost of a warehouse, which is quite high in the Lower Mainland.
Essentially, we are proposing to create a large hub and then sort out the cargo and deliver that cargo by barge to the closest point to the end-user, at the same time alleviating congestion on the road and bringing that cargo up the Fraser River to Port Kells, to Annacis Island, right next to the warehouse. This would minimize the truck traffic and impact on the community. It would also deliver a full trainload to Deltaport and Vanterm terminals that was destined for eastern Canada, and essentially unload the full train directly from the barge, increasing optimization and efficiency.
At the same time, we will be able to open up Vancouver Island, which my colleague this morning mentioned, is growing in population. Right now, the population of Vancouver Island is about 800,000 people. We are expecting to grow, as the CEO of the Port of Nanaimo mentioned, to 1.5 million. It's a large population base on its own. Just to compare, that is one-third of the Lower Mainland. It's larger than three eastern Canadian provinces. If we grow to 1.5 million, we'll probably surpass Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia in population. All our goods and everything we produce or consume has to go via the Lower Mainland, which creates congestion in the Lower Mainland on road and rail, and doesn't allow direct access to the international market for the businesses and companies we have on Vancouver Island.
The PATH project, or the Port Alberni trans-shipment hub will essentially help alleviate a lot of those problems both environmentally and economically. It will help alleviate road and rail congestion as well.
Thank you.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Judy Sgro
Thank you very much.
We are joined by Gagan Singh from the United Truckers Association. Welcome.
Please keep your comments to five minutes or less so that the members can get their questions asked.
Gagan Singh Spokesperson, United Trucking Association
Thank you so much.
Yes, of course. I am also putting on my cellphone, so I'll be looking at that even though in my brief, too, we have tried to cap this.
My name is Gagan Singh. I am spokesperson for the United Truckers Association. The short term is UTA. We help a total of almost 1,100 people. A few of those are owner-operators and a few of them are company drivers. The total impact is approximately 10,200 direct jobs and over $2.75 billion in economic impact. I am here today because of the Catch-22 that our organization has faced over the last four years. We don't understand where we stand—where we are starting from and to where we are reaching. We have the same terms and we don't understand where we stand.
In March 2014 there was a big strike, which was ended by a 14-point joint action plan signed by the Government of Canada, the B.C. Government, the port of Vancouver, UTA, and Unifor, who were partners in that. Today, more than four years later, several commitments in the agreement have still not been lived up to, even four years after that date. For example, the wait time fee, which was supposed to be paid out to our truckers at the designated points, is not being paid out. As of today, the points specified in the agreement have never come into effect.
Our organization is concerned with the lack of accountability that exists for any issues regarding the port of Vancouver. The Office of the BC Container Trucking Commissioner, which is an entity run totally by the Government of British Columbia, is doing a tremendous job.
When we speak to our local members of Parliament—and I know that the honourable Mr. Ken Hardie is also sitting here—I do believe that probably their hands are tied because the port is run in the federal jurisdiction but it does its work independently.
Finally, our communications with the port of Vancouver are for the most part unsatisfactory with regard to the policy changes. We are a major part of the joint action plan for 2014, but most of the policy changes are not communicated to us.
We have reported incidents of harassment, and no action has been taken. Most recently the UTA was threatened in a letter for alleged actions that our members are not responsible for. Sometimes our company owners are threatened with losing their licence if they raise their voice, which is clearly to bring down our voice, even though we are in the 21st century in a country like Canada.
Last, UTA stakeholder organizations rely on the facilities operated under the jurisdiction of the port of metro Vancouver, but we are facing a black hole when it comes to accountability.
If you have any questions, I am happy to answer them. In my brief, on the second page, there are some bullet points.
Thank you.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Judy Sgro
Thank you very much, Mr. Singh.
We will open it up for questions.
Go ahead, Mr. Jeneroux.
Edmonton Riverbend, CPC
Thank you, Madam Chair. I have a few questions here.
I'll start with you, Mr. Eshleman. You mentioned the concerns you have with regard to the new grain terminal. I'll give you a bit more time to expand on some of your concerns and challenges with potential policies that might come into place.
Chair, BC Marine Terminal Operators Association
I know the federal government is currently reviewing the permitting processes. Currently the port of Vancouver is the permitting agent for developments at our facilities and on federal land. They've gone through an extensive process to update their whole environmental review and permit review process over the last three or four years.
Our feeling is that they do a very good job with respect to the permitting and carrying out of the regulatory requirements under the federal government's mandate. We haven't experienced any issues with respect to the permitting of any of our members' projects.
The time frame to get a permit is sometimes of concern, but our concern if it goes to another body, or to a federal process, is that the time frame is going to increase exponentially. That will likely cause some projects to not go ahead just because of the level of investment that's involved and what all is involved in getting private industry to invest in these types of projects.
Edmonton Riverbend, CPC
Has your organization done a risk assessment on which projects may or may not go ahead based on what potentially the legislation is at this point?
Chair, BC Marine Terminal Operators Association
I wouldn't say that we've done a risk profile on the separate projects. No, we haven't done that.
I can speak from experience, as our company is a joint venture partner in the G3 project. I can speak from personal experience there. If there had been a significant delay on that project, given the level of expenditure that was required in that marketplace, it likely would not have gone ahead.
Edmonton Riverbend, CPC
Okay.
I'm just curious. Were you and your organization consulted prior to the pending changes?
Chair, BC Marine Terminal Operators Association
Yes, we were. We also did a submission respecting the pending changes, both our association and our company.
Edmonton Riverbend, CPC
Did you have a conversation at the federal level with specific ministers at all?
Chair, BC Marine Terminal Operators Association
I haven't had a conversation with a specific minister, no.
Chair, BC Marine Terminal Operators Association
Sorry. I have talked to trade.
Edmonton Riverbend, CPC
Sure.
Mr. Buy, thank you for your presentation.
You also mentioned that the change in criteria for support of infrastructure projects is a potential challenge for you. Do you mind expanding a bit more on that?
Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Ferry Association
I'll give you the example of the new Building Canada fund, which initially was announced by the previous government. Other than the short sea shipping, which could potentially have supported the activities of some of our members, our ferry operators were not eligible because mainly they transport passengers. There was a change in criteria by the government in 2016 to allow some of our operators to participate in that. The then minister of infrastructure, Mr. Sohi, changed the criteria. BC Ferries, as an example, has been receiving funding thanks to that, and the provinces of Ontario, Nova Scotia, etc., so on that front, that's positive. However, there still are funding programs in the new Building Canada fund that are divided between passengers and goods, and we think that's wrong, because some vessels and ferries transport both. We shouldn't limit it to that extent.
Liberal
