Evidence of meeting #114 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 airports.
A recording is available from Parliament.
October 18th, 2018 / 9:05 a.m.
Liberal
Angelo Iacono Liberal Alfred-Pellan, QC
Thank you, Madam Chair.
My thanks to the witnesses for joining us today.
Mr. McGrath, you said that things are going very well, especially between Labrador West and Sept-Îles. You are asking us to invest, but what exactly are the problems that arise for you?
9:05 a.m.
Councillor, Town of Labrador City
Thank you very much.
The biggest issue is the amount of traffic that would be flowing through Sept-Îles, Quebec, from a transportation perspective.
We're hoping to see the Alderon mine go into production probably by 2020, as well as the Tacora mines, which is the former Cliffs Wabush Mines. That was just acquired by Tacora and they will be going into production. Bloom Lake, which went into production about eight years ago by Thompson Consolidated, closed. That has now been reopened so they are now producing and already shipping ore.
The amount of ore that is going to be shipped through the Port of Sept-Îles, we're expecting severely significant increases in that.
The rail line runs from Labrador, west to Sept-Îles, Quebec. I know that Wabush Mines, as well as the Iron Ore Company of Canada, have a very large presence in Sept-Îles, Quebec, where they actually have plants right on the port. If the industry keeps moving the way it's moving now, the amount of traffic and ore that is going to need to be shipped through Sept-Îles, Quebec, is going to increase significantly. Therefore, I know that there were investments made to increase the size and the depth of the port in Sept-Îles to make it a deepwater port. We'd like to see more investments there to see improvements in that so that it can—
9:10 a.m.
Liberal
Angelo Iacono Liberal Alfred-Pellan, QC
Thank you.
I do not want to repeat myself, but I would just like to have some more clarification. In your opinion, what role should the federal government play? You say that there should be more investments, but to do what exactly?
9:10 a.m.
Councillor, Town of Labrador City
I think the biggest role that we will be looking for from the federal government will be financial investments, in partnerships with provincial governments, which may be the Newfoundland and Labrador government as well as the Quebec government, to see that the iron ore industry does remain viable and, through the three levels of government, the industry keeps going strong.
9:10 a.m.
Liberal
Angelo Iacono Liberal Alfred-Pellan, QC
Thank you.
Ms. Zimmerman, what are the priorities for the Buffalo and Fort Erie Public Bridge Authority?
9:10 a.m.
Board Member, Buffalo and Fort Erie Public Bridge Authority
It's trade—the ability for two countries to have access to those economies is the importance of that—as well as tourism. There are huge tourism opportunities when you have Niagara Falls on both sides of the bridge. You have the American falls; you have the Canadian falls.
That trade corridor, as I mentioned earlier, was set up through a compact through the federal government by Lester Pearson, and it created an opportunity for the two countries to...and that's why they called it the Peace Bridge. It was an opportunity to share the work, or rather to share the trade of the two countries, the economies, more importantly. That's probably the better way of putting it.
The bridge is not at capacity. It could be at capacity with the opportunity to build on the access to what we call the Boston-Washington area for trade opportunities, especially with the new USMCA trade agreement. In our business—the wine business, the grape and wine industry—we're struggling to bring tourism into Niagara from both the American and the Canadian side, because of the capacity of the QEW. It was a major highway that was built to facilitate the opportunities of trade connecting to the Peace Bridge, as well as into Toronto, but the growth is suffocating us and we need an alternative for truck traffic, in particular, for the Peace Bridge.
9:10 a.m.
Liberal
9:10 a.m.
Liberal
Gagan Sikand Liberal Mississauga—Streetsville, ON
Thank you to our witnesses for being here.
I'm going to move quickly, because I have limited time.
Mr. McGrath, we had somebody come in talking about the mines and what the bottlenecks are. I'm curious to know if climate change affects the feasibility of the mines where you come from.
9:10 a.m.
Councillor, Town of Labrador City
It will, yes. Climate change will have a big effect eventually.
9:10 a.m.
Liberal
Gagan Sikand Liberal Mississauga—Streetsville, ON
Thank you.
Ms. Zimmerman, when you were giving those facts and figures of the tourism dollars, does that include U.S. dollars coming into Canada?
9:10 a.m.
Board Member, Buffalo and Fort Erie Public Bridge Authority
That's the impact on the Canadian side, yes.
9:10 a.m.
Board Member, Buffalo and Fort Erie Public Bridge Authority
Just the Canadian side, yes.
9:10 a.m.
Liberal
Gagan Sikand Liberal Mississauga—Streetsville, ON
Okay.
I represent a Mississauga riding. I grew up there. I can attest to the traffic going into Niagara Falls. The impact study from the province that you were talking about, could you elaborate on it?
9:10 a.m.
Board Member, Buffalo and Fort Erie Public Bridge Authority
That was an assessment—what we would call a preliminary assessment—of the feasibility of the mid-peninsula corridor. There was so much pressure locally. We were able to get, in my previous political life, locally, an assessment of the potential of the highway. Of course, that would take in all the environmental concerns, as well as location and a number of other things, but since that time the process has been stalled for a number of reasons. Jurisdictionally, it will take federal, provincial and municipal governments' willingness to move forward with what we believe is an alternative to using just the QEW for truck traffic.
9:10 a.m.
NDP
Robert Aubin NDP Trois-Rivières, QC
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you for joining us this morning, ladies and gentlemen, and for sharing your expertise with us.
My first question goes to you, Mr. McGrath. In a number of the studies that the Standing Committee on Transportation, Infrastructure and Communities has done in the past, particularly on shipping grain in the west, we have often been told about problems with rail delivery, because of the particularly harsh winters. I imagine that you are well aware of the harshness of the winters between Labrador West and Sept-Îles. Are you seeing any problems that are directly related to the winter conditions in delivering or shipping your freight by rail?
9:15 a.m.
Councillor, Town of Labrador City
We do have very harsh winters, minus 50 and normally lots of snow. It's a very high-grade railway system, the Quebec north shore railway system that runs from Labrador West right to Sept-Îles, Quebec, and in 40 years in Labrador West I've never known, outside of a derailment, winter conditions to have had an effect on the transportation.
9:15 a.m.
NDP
Robert Aubin NDP Trois-Rivières, QC
Are there enough cars to ship all of Labrador West's production to the Port of Sept-Îles?
9:15 a.m.
Councillor, Town of Labrador City
The number of railcars changes by the amount of oil that's being shipped. As I stated in my earlier comments, right now there are two very active and busy mines. Bloom Lake has just come back on again. Each one of these companies supplies their own railcars.
The rail line runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and as each company increases its production it also increases the amount of cars. For example, Bloom Lake, which just came back online, has about 250 extra railcars on the line right now.
9:15 a.m.
NDP
Robert Aubin NDP Trois-Rivières, QC
Okay.
So each company is self-sufficient, to some extent, and if production were to increase or if new mines were to open, the Port of Sept-Îles will have to increase its capacity. Is that correct?
Right now, is the Port of Sept-Îles operating at full capacity?
9:15 a.m.
Councillor, Town of Labrador City
As I stated earlier, there were expansions done to the Port of Sept-Îles. Right now, they are working at capacity and working very efficiently, but if the increases continue, there will need to be improvements to the rail line at the port as well as to the port itself.
9:15 a.m.
NDP
Robert Aubin NDP Trois-Rivières, QC
So I gather from your remarks that the investments you want to receive from the federal government would be used more for the port facilities than the railway facilities.
I will now move to Ms. Zimmerman.
In your preliminary remarks, you said that you do not remember how long it has been since a highway was last built. You seem to have said that the Queen Elizabeth Way is at saturation point.
What is the solution? Do we have to build a new highway which, if I understand correctly, would be used exclusively for freight? If we did that, would it not create a bottleneck at the border, because everyone ends up at the same bridge, however they get there?
9:15 a.m.
Board Member, Buffalo and Fort Erie Public Bridge Authority
Thank you very much.
I think what I was referring to was part of the mid-peninsula corridor. When I refer to it as a “corridor”, I'm referring to the opportunities for a mode of transportation that could be road, rail and, in our case, the Welland Canal. The opportunity is to blend, I think, and to look at that mode of transportation and create a transportation strategy for the area.
Currently our bridge is underutilized, so the truck traffic, even on the bridge today, is underutilized. I would agree with you that if we were thinking only in terms of moving transportation through trucks, you would end up with the same kind of bottleneck.
What we're asking, because we're having a problem with tourism and also a problem with commuter traffic on the QEW, is to look at that transportation corridor that is called the mid-peninsula corridor, which has that potential. The very preliminary studies that were referred to earlier through the EA show the potential for us to be more intermodal and more multimodal. Why not today, when we have that ability for air, rail and water? Certainly, with the road that we currently have with the QEW, taking that pressure off the QEW and building a new transportation strategy around it is what we've been talking about for years.
