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.
Vice-President, Planning and Operations, Vancouver Fraser Port Authority
That's our concern.
Vice-President, Planning and Operations, Vancouver Fraser Port Authority
Put simply, if the threshold for projects being kicked to a central review agency is exceptionally low, that's going to be a big deterrent for ports.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Nanaimo Port Authority
We look at the change as very positive, because we all have a responsibility with regard to the environment. Globally, we have a responsibility, but we have to be exceptionally careful that we don't put so many roadblocks in place that, in fact, the potential customers go elsewhere. I don't mean they go elsewhere from Nanaimo; they go elsewhere from Canada, because it becomes too complex and too costly for some people, with no certainty as to whether the project will occur or not, and many dollars are spent until they get to the point where they understand whether it will occur.
I also look at it from the perspective that, in some way, it is connected to UNDRIP and the government's move with regard to incorporating UNDRIP. We have to be exceptionally careful when we're looking at impacts across the whole length of the project. When we have UNDRIP and the consent requirement with regard to indigenous people, potentially we're adding exceptionally to the timeline. As long as we keep a very tight and professional timeline to it, I think it's a really positive thing, but if it starts to grow excessively, I completely agree with Peter that it's probably detrimental with regard to future business for Canada.
The last comment I would make I think is very important, to one of the questions mentioned earlier. Having the federal port system allows a common process across east, west and central Canada. I think that's exceptionally important when a client comes from outside of Canada. Dealing with the east coast is not different from dealing with the west coast. They are dealing with the same process. I feel that's very important.
Chief Operating Officer, Greater Victoria Harbour Authority
I don't have anything to add.
Edmonton Riverbend, CPC
If or when Bill C-69 becomes legislation, will that impact how you guys do business on a day-to-day basis?
I guess I'll explain where I'm coming from. Right now, with what's in place on your end, are you satisfied that you satisfy both the environmental and the economic concerns, the way business is right now, the way the federal government and the province do it now?
To put it simply, is Bill C-69 essentially more legislation that's not necessarily needed right now?
September 26th, 2018 / 9:55 a.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Nanaimo Port Authority
I would say no. I think Bill C-69 is the right way to go.
We have a case at this moment about a fast passenger ferry going from Nanaimo to downtown Vancouver, a potential project. The proponents had an environmental assessment in Nanaimo, and environmental assessments in the port of Vancouver, but nothing in between on the Salish Sea.
When we go to Bill C-69, we'll consider the full journey of that fast ferry. Both parties are introducing requirements to that proponent about noise and speed with regard to killer whales—to the question asked earlier. That's outside of the present remit of what we're supposed to examine from an environmental perspective, but we know it's very important, so we asked the proponent to include that as part of the process.
Bill C-69 would ensure that we look at everything—
Vice-President, Planning and Operations, Vancouver Fraser Port Authority
I would agree. Obviously, this is a complex space for which Canada has to have an appropriate process in place. The fundamental message is that ports have been responsible in fully serving the mandate that is before them in the Canada Marine Act. In the case of Vancouver, there's a tremendous level of complexity in our process reflecting the community and the issues that we have before us.
I think the key message with regard to Bill C-69 is, as Ewan mentioned, balancing those steps forward with ensuring that Canada remains competitive in attracting capital.
NDP
Robert Aubin NDP Trois-Rivières, QC
Thank you.
Ms. Ross, I come back to you, as you are the only one who, in your preliminary statements, referred to the issue that I now wish to address. It was also brought up in the ensuing discussion. I even think that the members of the Committee have some soul-searching to do. In the list of witnesses that we called, there are not many First Nations representatives.
I would like to have more information regarding the consultation and collaboration process that you had with First Nations.
Chief Operating Officer, Greater Victoria Harbour Authority
The Songhees and Esquimalt nations in Victoria are actually founding members of the Greater Victoria Harbour Authority. Not to belabour some history, but we are a divested port from the federal government for four port properties. We are governed by a board of 13, made up of eight member agencies and four independents. Two of those members are first nations.
We have various streams of consultation through our first nations partners, but first off on projects are extensive presentations and attending dinners with their administration and council on a regular basis to keep them informed. They do bring their voting interests to the table to help us make a more fulsome decision on projects and priorities. We have a funding stream back to our first nations partners as well. We work very closely with them. They're just part of our framework as the harbour authority.
NDP
Robert Aubin NDP Trois-Rivières, QC
In the first decision by the Federal Court of Appeal, we learned that there must be two-way consultation. That does not mean simply presenting development projects to the First Nations. The feedback that they provide must also be taken into consideration.
How did you react to the latest decision?
Chief Operating Officer, Greater Victoria Harbour Authority
As I said, we work very closely with them, so they do have an important stake and voice at our table throughout any decision we are making. There is some complexity in Victoria when it comes to more regional issues that come up, particularly around the port. There are still questions with the federal government around accommodation and the settlement of the seabed. We look to facilitate that.
We do a lot of engagement, whether it's financial or having their voice heard. We also have a liaison position in-house to help facilitate many of the sensitivities that we might run up against. We do more than just presentations; they are an active, involved partner at our table.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Judy Sgro
Thank you all very much. It was very informative to open up our hearings here in Vancouver.
Tonight, from 5:30 to 6:30, we will have an open mike session. If any of the participants feel they need to come and get in an additional comment or two, or some interaction with committee members, they are certainly all welcome. It will be held right here in this room.
If it's okay with our witnesses, we'd like to suspend for a moment to take a photo.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Judy Sgro
We're reconvening our meeting. Thank you to our second panel.
Today we have with us the Canadian National Railway Company with Brad Bodner, director of business development. We have the Canadian Pacific Railway with James Clements, Vice-President, Strategic Planning and Transportation Services; Southern Railway of British Columbia with Derek Ollmann, President; and from TransLink, Geoff Cross, Vice-President, Transportation Planning and Policy, New Westminster.
Welcome to all of you. Thank you for participating in this important study we are doing.
Mr. Ollmann, would you like to start?
Please try to keep your comments to the five minutes.
Derek Ollmann President, Southern Railway of British Columbia
Southern Railway of B.C. is a short-line freight operator in Vancouver's Pacific gateway. Like other short-line operators, we provide a first-mile, last-mile switching service to our customers, providing them with a critical transportation link to our class 1 railway partners.
In the case of SRY, we connect with the CN, CP, and BNSF in two locations in the greater Vancouver area, with access to the underutilized international rail crossing at the Huntingdon-Sumas border. This connectivity expands the reach of the class 1 railway into areas of the industrial land base within Vancouver.
SRY's role as a short-line operator is to support the fluid cycle of loaded railcars to their final destination and return the railcar to the class 1 in the shortest amount of time. SRY provides a complementary service to class 1s so they can focus on efficiencies through the major rail corridors. Currently, Southern Railway handles around 69,000 car loads annually, and we have experienced consistent and continual growth on a year-over-year basis.
We anticipate railcar volume to increase over the short term with commodities with focused growth in key sectors, including agriculture commodities; export container stuffing, and particularly in the production of animal feed based in the Fraser Valley; and chemical and fuel transport to support various industries, including support to the pulp and paper industry via SRY's Annacis rail-marine barge loading facility.
We also handle import and domestic vehicle handling via WWS and Hansen's. This comprises Canada's largest auto-handling facility on the west coast.
SRY is also well positioned to take advantage of new short-sea shipping opportunities with access to rail-marine interface.
It's not all positive news on the short-line business model. We are being squeezed from many different sides. We experience the same challenges that face the class 1s in terms of increased government regulation, more stringent environmental regulations and the need for capital infrastructure projects. But short-line operators are on an entirely different economic scale as far as operations are concerned. Government support and financial incentives in the form of capital grants or incentive-based programs specifically designed to help short-line railways are needed. Typically, SRY invests around 12% of its revenue toward projects that are necessary to sustain existing operations in a safe manner.
Targeted short-line funding programs would enable short-lines to spend beyond sustainment and invest in projects that support future growth for the movement of goods both internationally and domestically, address capacity constraints and improve efficiency, and invest in projects that reduce public frustration with railways.
Within the background document provided to the committee, we also refer to other key challenges ahead for short-line railways. As mentioned in the previous panel, preserving industrial land is critical for sustaining the efficient flow of goods through Canada's Pacific gateway. Also concerning is the conversion of land to residential use. Government support in maintaining sufficient proximity between railways and heavy industry from dense residential development is important for reducing public frustration with railways and industry.
We also would like to maintain our competitiveness with other modes of transportation. A short-line railway's largest competitor is trucks, which operate on the publicly funded road network. A modal shift away from rail would increase congestion and maintenance on roadways and increase emissions.
In closing, SRY provides a critical transportation link between local business and the North American rail network. When the short-line rail operator is inefficient, there's a ripple effect across the supply chain, so short-lines must remain aligned with our class 1 partners. Government support would enable short-lines to invest in capital infrastructure projects like bridge upgrades, new signal systems and grade separations, which will help maintain our competitiveness and efficiency. All of these investments would ensure that we don't become the choke point within the system.
Thank you.
Liberal
Geoff Cross Vice-President, Transportation Planning and Policy, New Westminster, TransLink
Thank you, Chair.
It's a pleasure to be here. We're really pleased at TransLink to see the federal government weighing in on this area and looking at us and starting a strategy discussion.
As you're aware, TransLink is the regional transportation authority within metro Vancouver, with the very broad mandate of managing the movement of goods and people on the regional network, which primarily includes the road network, and not the heavy rail network but the interface between them. We represent 21 municipalities, one first nation, and an electoral area in that regard.
For many years TransLink had within our mandate this regional goods movement role that had not really been played, and we have started to fill that in over the last few years. I think there are lessons from this that we can learn from now that the federal government is starting to have a discussion and emphasize and maybe amplify as well.
For many years the gateway council was a very effective voice for regional issues, and continues to be to this day. But in recognition that 60% of heavy truck travel within the region has a local destination, it's not just about gateway infrastructure. It's about understanding the interaction between provincial and federal infrastructure and then local infrastructure, to be able to go end to end on the trips and understand how we efficiently move goods through this region.
The last point can be the real choking point, if you talk to some of our partners, on how one deals with community issues. Mr. Ollmann raised the pieces about land use and residential development within the region. TransLink was set up to play part of that role and I think we need a better conversation with the federal government about how we balance those land use needs and those local transportation needs and community needs for a quieter, safer and healthier goods movement, while making sure we're efficient and effective in doing so.
At the urging of our gateway partners over the last couple of years, about a year ago we came up with our first regional goods movement strategy that looks at what role we play with the regional road network on making sure we're doing our part looking into the future on planned proposed investment, for management of the system, and for partnering on the system, and that we have the infrastructure of partnerships to coordinate on those activities.
I think metro Vancouver is a case study in that regard. The gateway council has been very effective over the years. A Gateway Collaboration Transportation Forum has come together, which includes TransLink, the port, the province and Transport Canada, which identifies the necessary investments and how they work together in bundles.
That's the other piece that TransLink is trying to emphasize. How do we manage both our transport and land use planning? Our sister agency is Metro Vancouver. They look at the industrial land use base and work with the municipalities on ensuring that we have adequate supply, or trying to ensure we have adequate supply. We always say that the best transport plan is a good land use plan, and that is obviously critical in metro Vancouver with our constrained land base and the economic pressures for residential and commercial uses on it.
The final piece of that partnership is not just with the gateway partners, the agencies, but with the railways, our key stakeholders and large businesses as well. We've developed an urban freight council. It would be very good to see the federal government involved in that.
Finally, we will be promoting three ideas for you consider as you go into the strategy. One is an emphasis on funding and supporting plans, not just projects. I know you look at plans, but it's being cognizant of lots of different network plans, whether it be the ports 2050 strategy, TransLink's long-range strategy, or the rail strategy, and how these come together to think holistically so that the sum of the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. That is opposed to doing a project where, if we haven't thought of the interconnected interdependencies, sometimes we don't get the value out of those investments. We want to make sure that the converse is true.
The second piece is supporting and funding really good information so that we have research, we have data analysis, and we're able to make sure that we are effectively monitoring how our investments are doing and what we're trying to achieve. We talk about congestion, but it's really about travel time and travel reliability, how we are adjusting over time and making sure that we are aiming for the right thing.
First things last, I think it is being at the regional table with the partners and understanding what it is that we're trying to achieve, what are our objectives are in terms of goods movement and reliability.
Brad Bodner Director, Business Development, Canadian National Railway Company
Good morning.
I'm going to stick to my script to make it easier on the translator.
My name is Brad Bodner. I'm director of business development for CN. We appreciate the opportunity to appear before the Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities on the important topic of trade corridors.
CN employs about 24,000 people across North America, transporting more than 250 billion dollars' worth of goods across a North American rail network covering roughly 20,000 route miles. This is Rail Safety Week across Canada and our team of railroaders have been on the ground in many of our neighbouring communities sharing a message of awareness and tips about our shared responsibility for safety around rails. CN is a proud partner of Operation Lifesaver, whose 2018 rail safety campaign #STOPTrackTragedies is continuing to reach millions of Canadians all over the country.
British Columbia, and particularly the Lower Mainland, are an extremely important part of our network. As trade with Asia has grown in importance, the focus on the movement of goods through the west coast ports has grown with it. About 25% of CN's business either enters or departs Canada through the British Columbia ports.
Intermodal traffic—that is, goods moving in containers—is the fastest growing segment of CN's business, with the coming expansion of intermodal terminals in Vancouver and the recently completed expansion of Fairview terminal in Prince Rupert demonstrating the significant increase in this traffic. However, it isn't just intermodal. The majority of bulk products we carry also move through terminals at the ports of Vancouver and Prince Rupert. Grain and coal move through Prince Rupert, while grain, coal, potash and sulphur are among the bulk commodities that move through Vancouver. Vancouver is clearly the preferred gateway for western Canadian grain and speciality crops. Even some grain destined to Europe now moves through Vancouver as the most cost-effective way to reach its destination.
Needless to say, CN and our customers are extremely dependent on efficient operation and timely development of the B.C. ports. CN has been investing on an ongoing basis to ensure we have sufficient capacity to address the growth in business, particularly in western Canada. In 2018, CN is investing approximately $340 million to expand and strengthen its B.C. rail network. The B.C. investments are part of CN's record $3.4-billion capital program for 2018 and include key track expansion projects that will boost capacity, allowing CN to better serve our customers.
In June the Government of Canada announced funding through the national trade corridors fund for two infrastructure projects of great significance to CN and the transportation supply chain in Vancouver. These investments will have a positive impact on CN's capacity in this very busy trade corridor.
These projects, jointly funded by the Government of Canada, CN, and the port of Vancouver, will boost capacity along the rail corridor across the Second Narrows Rail Bridge, linking transportation networks to growing grain, potash, coal and forest products export terminals on Vancouver's north shore. Many of the existing terminals have recently expanded capacity and G3 is currently constructing a new grain terminal on the north shore. This is a significant project as it's the first new grain terminal in Vancouver in many decades and includes a very efficient loop track design, the first on the Canadian west coast. The government also announced funding to expand capacity on the rail line that serves as CN's primary access to DP World's Centerm Terminal and Global Container Terminals' Vanterm Terminal, both of which have expansion plans in the works.
We are very pleased with the government's decision to create an infrastructure fund aimed specifically at trade corridors. The value of this fund is unlike traditional infrastructure funds in that it does not require the participation of a second level of government. This recognizes the reality that much of the value of investing in a corridor, like the corridor to Vancouver's north shore, does not accrue to B.C. or the municipalities, but rather to Saskatchewan and Alberta, whose grain, coal and potash make up the majority of the traffic that depends on the corridor to reach its market.
Going forward there are still many bottlenecks that need to be addressed in order to grow capacity in the Lower Mainland. One key project that needs to move forward is the replacement of the Fraser River bridge. This bridge, which is owned by Public Services and Procurement Canada and operated by CN, is over 100 years old. It is regularly used by six railways, three freight and three passenger, totalling some 40 trains per day. It is an old-style swing bridge, open eight hours a day for marine traffic and with very little capacity for the new volumes associated with the terminal expansions planned or under way. This bridge needs to be replaced and it will be both expensive and complex to do so. We encourage the government to move forward on this project in a timely manner.
Canadian exporters and importers depend on a reliable and efficient supply chain in order to remain competitive on the global stage. The Vancouver gateway is a key part of that supply chain. Continued investment and the ability to grow and adapt to meet the changing needs of customers are essential in order to enable Vancouver, as well as Prince Rupert and other Canadian ports, to meet the growing needs of Canadian businesses.