Thank you, Mr. Iacono.
Thank you for supporting us and allowing us to appear before the committee.
We clearly need to have the capacity and the port space needed to accommodate more vessels and containers or to have more cargo coming and going. In fact, the Port of Montreal is a balanced port in terms of imports and exports, with each of those two activities accounting for about 50% of trade. However, the intermodal chain must also follow suit.
Increasing direct access to the port is one of the strategies used by the Port of Montreal, which takes care of vessels, but of much more as well. It ensures the fluidity of the intermodal, since that is a key element of competition. In order to be a viable alternative to American ports, our intermodal chain must be able to get goods in and out quickly.
The addition of direct road access to the Port of Montreal is one of the strategies we have used. We now have direct access through Highway 25, from the north to the south and from the south to the north. In addition, we want to add another access by extending Souligny Avenue, in Montreal. Recently, we worked in close collaboration with our terminal operators to extend the hours of operation to accommodate trucks. That enabled us to manage the increased traffic over the past few months.