Evidence of meeting #113 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 drivers.
A recording is available from Parliament.
9:30 a.m.
Liberal
Bob Bratina Liberal Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON
On the question of intermodal facilities, I know another one that opened in Valleyfield, and you may be referring to it, but I'm not quite sure, as you mentioned four. CSX built a large facility. Does that interface with your activity at all?
9:30 a.m.
Vice-President, Growth and Development, Montreal Port Authority
No, not at all. It was viewed as a competitive factor for the port of Montreal. Since then, it has been put up for sale now, and as we expected, it was a tough sell.
Regarding Contrecoeur, which is why we're going there, one of the big things people have to realize is that it's land we purchased about 35 years ago. It's already a bulk terminal. We do roughly 3.5 million tonnes, and we already have rail and road infrastructure.
When you're looking at ports in terms of the developing ports, those are the key elements in terms of the water, rail, and road, which all currently exist at Contrecoeur, which is one of the reasons we're going there, and why we picked that land.
9:35 a.m.
Conservative
Ron Liepert Conservative Calgary Signal Hill, AB
Madam Chair, before I ask my questions, I'd like to make a brief comment about our guests who are here today.
It's my understanding that they are part of the Clayton Riddell scholarship program at Carleton. Mr. Riddell was someone I knew very well in Calgary and was a long-time philanthropist. We're exceedingly happy to have them here. Unfortunately, we lost Mr. Riddell very recently.
Welcome, everybody. I just wanted to make that point.
Mr. Marshall, are the oil sands mining operations part of your association?
9:35 a.m.
Vice-President, Economic and Northern Affairs, Mining Association of Canada
Yes, they are. Well, several of them are.
9:35 a.m.
Conservative
9:35 a.m.
Vice-President, Economic and Northern Affairs, Mining Association of Canada
Yes.
9:35 a.m.
Conservative
Ron Liepert Conservative Calgary Signal Hill, AB
What impact does oil by rail have on the Mining Association's non oil sands members?
You mentioned earlier about your issue with the railways. Is oil by rail an issue?
9:35 a.m.
Vice-President, Economic and Northern Affairs, Mining Association of Canada
Well, it depends on how you look at it, right?
I mean, I think there's—
9:35 a.m.
Vice-President, Economic and Northern Affairs, Mining Association of Canada
From a capacity standpoint, one stat that would be helpful for context is that I think in September, we were shipping, as a country, 85,000 barrels of oil a day—
9:35 a.m.
Vice-President, Economic and Northern Affairs, Mining Association of Canada
—and that's expected to ramp up to about 400,000 by Christmas, as I understand it.
9:35 a.m.
Conservative
Ron Liepert Conservative Calgary Signal Hill, AB
Well, no, that's not quite right.
We were shipping about 200,000 last month, and I think there will be marginal ramp-up, only because the capacity isn't there to add more railcars.
However, has the Mining Association taken a position on pipelines?
9:35 a.m.
Vice-President, Economic and Northern Affairs, Mining Association of Canada
We were part of a broad competitiveness in Canada campaign, and signed a letter advancing—
9:35 a.m.
Conservative
Ron Liepert Conservative Calgary Signal Hill, AB
Why aren't you taking a stronger position on the need for pipelines?
9:35 a.m.
Vice-President, Economic and Northern Affairs, Mining Association of Canada
We're very supportive of pipelines.
Generally speaking—
9:35 a.m.
Vice-President, Economic and Northern Affairs, Mining Association of Canada
—Mr. Liepert, if I could, our members ask their respective associations to advance different priorities on their behalf. Traditionally, MAC has not been the lead organization on linear projects on behalf of our oil sands members.
While, of course, we support market access in principle, which I've enumerated very clearly in my talking points, the degree or vocalness of our support would be contingent, I guess, on how our members would seek for us to represent their views.
9:35 a.m.
Conservative
Ron Liepert Conservative Calgary Signal Hill, AB
Okay.
Has your association taken any position on Bill C-69?
9:35 a.m.
Vice-President, Economic and Northern Affairs, Mining Association of Canada
Yes, we have.
9:35 a.m.
Vice-President, Economic and Northern Affairs, Mining Association of Canada
We support the bill's passage, without amendment, at the Senate.
9:35 a.m.
Vice-President, Economic and Northern Affairs, Mining Association of Canada
Why is that? We don't have confidence that the bill could be amended without undue risk from the package that's been proposed as is.
For example, let me draw your attention to another bill, Bill C-68. It had a well-intentioned amendment at the House of Commons committee, which, through poor drafting, has resulted in a potential to compromise the entire Fisheries Act.
So when we're—
