Transport Committee on Oct. 18th, 2018

[Robert Aubin, NDP, Trois-Rivières, QC]

If the bridge is not used at full capacity at the moment, can I deduce from that there is little or no wait to cross the border? If there is a wait, even though the bridge is not used to its full capacity, what will happen if there is an additional route coming to increase the traffic?

[Debbie Zimmerman]

There are always delays on our bridge due to construction, accidents, inspections—all sorts of things. We have—

[Robert Aubin, NDP, Trois-Rivières, QC]

I was talking mostly about—

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

I'm sorry, Mr. Aubin.

Ms. Zimmerman, if you want to try to finish...?

[Debbie Zimmerman]

I was going to say that we have pre-clearance for trucking so there's a lot less delay when it comes to the trucks on our Peace Bridge.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Badawey.

[Vance Badawey, Liberal, Niagara Centre, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

We heard from the Port of Montreal at our last meeting. Some of the comments they made are aligning with some of the comments that you folks are making. I'm quoting from their words to us, under “Efficient transportation logistics chain”, where they said, “For a port to be competitive and able to grow, it must be supported by reliable and efficient land trade corridors.”

You used those words verbatim: “land trade corridors”. We've seen that in our trip down to Niagara with the land that is adjacent to the Welland Canal, and of course with rail, air and road.

Under healthy infrastructure, they said, “All port authorities share the huge challenge of maintaining and optimizing aging infrastructure.” We noted that with aging infrastructure at the Welland Canal. Some docks can't even be docked on in order to do business or to create an economy.

They also made another point—and you made the same point—about innovation in recommending that we create a national program and innovation fund to bring these assets, and of course the strength that these assets have for the area economically, up to 2018, versus a 1930 QEW, for example.

Last, they talked about improving port capacity, whether it be a bridge, water, rail or road, as you mentioned, and to in fact invest in those capacity issues.

We currently have the Highway 401 Windsor-to-Quebec trade corridor road, which doesn't really attach to any other intermodal capacities except for rail, possibly, in some areas of the GTA, but the mid-peninsula corridor adds to a north-south trade corridor from Sarnia down to Niagara, which does in fact add an intermodal capacity to it, including the Welland Canal and main and short-line rail spurs, as well as road and air. With the Munro airport being underutilized, the Peace Bridge being underutilized, and the Welland Canal and the St. Lawrence Seaway being at only 50% capacity, we're seeing a trend here. Our strengths are being underutilized.

My question is for all three of you. Along with the recommendations that the Port of Montreal made, what recommendations do you have to in fact create more fluidity to bring capacity up with respect to the strengths and the assets that we have? Especially with CETA, CPTPP and now the USMCA coming on line, in the anticipation that more trade is going to be travelling through both countries and internationally, what recommendations do you have to in fact add to that fluidity in order to take full advantage of the strengths we have in terms of our assets?

[Debbie Zimmerman]

It goes back to some of the history of this country. What connected us initially was rail. The railway took us from one end of the country to the other. In between, we have built highways and airports. We have the Welland Canal, which dates back to the early twenties. We have an ability, I think, to connect the infrastructure, but as you've suggested, I think we need to improve that infrastructure.

What we're failing to do is to make the connection between all of those modes of transportation. That's what the mid-peninsula corridor is as a concept: to use the Munro airport, which is clearly underutilized, to connect up to Windsor to the new bridges that are going to be built and to ensure that traffic moves freely. Time is money in business. That's what we're failing to understand. It's affecting our business every single day. When we can't get tourists to our wineries to buy the wine in my business, which is the grape-growing side and to continue that.... We're small and medium-sized businesses in Canada, particularly in Ontario, but we have access to a huge market potential in the U.S. and we're not taking advantage of it.

I think—

[Vance Badawey, Liberal, Niagara Centre, ON]

Sorry, Ms. Zimmerman.

Mr. Korosec.

[Debbie Zimmerman]

I'm taking up too much of your time.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[Stan Korosec]

I agree with a lot of what Deb is saying here. At the borders, as you heard from us, we're doing all we can to improve the infrastructure. We work with U.S. Customs and Canada Customs in trying to make things at the border more efficient. I sit on two task forces, one with the U.S. Customs and one with Canada Customs. We learn how we can shave seconds off inspection times.

We're piloting a new thing with CBSA at the Ambassador Bridge. It's called the “secure corridor concept” and it's for trusted travellers such as that same Fiat Chrysler driver who crosses our bridge maybe six or seven times a day. Right now, we're testing a procedure whereby this truck will clear in about 23 seconds as opposed to a minute or two minutes. That's huge when you're doing 12,000 trucks a day.

At the borders, working with the border operators and customs, we're trying to speed things up, but when you're talking about transborder shipments, the border starts at the loading dock and ends at the unloading dock, and it's that piece in between that sometimes.... In my days with the OPP, when the highways were jammed, either through just pure volumes or.... When a truck spends more time trying to get through Toronto or the QEW to get to the Peace Bridge, for example, than it takes him or her to transit the bridge.... It's far greater. They sit for hours there, and there are hours-of-service regulations for truck drivers. Like Deb said, time is money. It's that piece that's really critical: getting to and getting away from the borders.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you very much, Mr. Badawey.

We'll move on to Mr. Sikand.

[Gagan Sikand, Liberal, Mississauga—Streetsville, ON]

My question is for Mr. Korosec.

I used to live in Sarnia for a number of years, just off of London Road. I've done that trip down the Highway 402 a number of times, hit the construction at night and had to go through the farmland. I've seen the multi-car pileups in the winter.

[Stan Korosec]

I've been in them.

[Gagan Sikand, Liberal, Mississauga—Streetsville, ON]

So have I.

[Stan Korosec]

As a police officer, though, not as a driver.

[Gagan Sikand, Liberal, Mississauga—Streetsville, ON]

I've helped push people out of the snow.

Some thoughts that I've had on that long drive are that this is our only artery to that bridge. When it gets shut down, we have no alternative route. We also don't have any highways going up towards Goderich or any of that space up there.

I'd welcome any thoughts on anything I just said.

[Stan Korosec]

Having spent many scary times out on the 402, especially in the wintertime, there's nothing you can do about the weather. It's there. It's a snowbelt area. I know, provincially, the MTO is working on some windbreaks along there, because in the open areas when the wind really blows, it's a real concern, and also on giving advance warning.

There are opportunities there. When the 402 was shut down for about a week several years ago, the Blue Water Bridge was still open but you couldn't get to it, so traffic was diverting down to the Ambassador Bridge. Now with Blue Water Bridge traffic, about 70% of it generates from an hour or so away from the border, so from London east. Whereas with the Ambassador Bridge, about 60% of traffic is local stuff, so trucks can divert. We talk amongst bridge operators about what's going on, along with MTO and the U.S. side so they'll have extra customs officers working.

As a matter of experience, there's a way we can manage traffic like that. The 402 is a good highway, and I would say it's not at capacity. I can give you some stats. All the border operators were not at capacity at our crossings.

It's a matter of just keeping up and looking toward the future. Using IT, there's some exciting stuff out there to warn drivers of hazards.

[Gagan Sikand, Liberal, Mississauga—Streetsville, ON]

Ms. Zimmerman, similar to what I asked, have there been any impact studies or assessments of any alternatives routes that you know of?

[Debbie Zimmerman]

Yes. I think there was a broader provincial transportation review that was done, I believe at the same time that the mid-peninsula corridor review was under way.

Again, I'm not sure about the status of those studies.

[Gagan Sikand, Liberal, Mississauga—Streetsville, ON]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Mr. Badawey, you have three minutes.

[Vance Badawey, Liberal, Niagara Centre, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I have to say when I hear that it's not at capacity, there's a reason for that. I won't say that the reason is demand. I'll say the reason is the bottlenecks that are contained within especially roadways. They're actually bypassing and going through Ohio into Michigan or Indiana and Illinois, versus going through Ontario like it used to be when the highway was first built in 1930. It's 2018, and obviously the day has come where, first, we note the congestion—the bottlenecks—but second, we also note the lack of optimization of land ties connecting a port to its markets.

That's what I want to drill down on.

Ms. Zimmerman, you're from Niagara. You're at one side of southwestern Ontario, the Peace Bridge. Mr. Korosec, you're from Windsor-Detroit, from the other side of that trade cluster, that economic cluster that is west of southwestern Ontario.

We talked with the Port of Montreal about fluidity, and not just fluidity within certain regions. This is why we're talking about trade corridors nationally. It's the fluidity, essentially from the Asia-Pacific, especially now with CETA, into the Midwest and then into the Great Lakes through Thunder Bay, Churchill as well, and into Montreal as well, and out to the EU and those markets that we're going to be participating with well into the future with respect to our trade.

In your area, between one bridge to the other—multimodal—how do we add to the fluidity of national trade and then participate in international trade?

[Debbie Zimmerman]

We have four bridges feeding into one highway. That's the challenge. From there, the transportation.... Niagara is down to a single rail line, other than the TH&B line, which doesn't have a huge capacity.

I think it's the coordination. As you mentioned, it's the coordination between what's going on and where we want to get to: the Asia-Pacific and all the way back.

Maybe it's me, but I think we need to have a broader strategy beyond where we are today. Niagara is just one element of that. We have the capacity at the canal that's underutilized, the capacity on the bridge that's underutilized, but the overcapacity of a single major functional highway called the QEW, which was never built to take on high volumes of truck traffic for the future. Then, we have the problem of getting out of Niagara and beyond with our trade.

As I said, we're being strangled by our own success.