Evidence of meeting #144 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 project.
A recording is available from Parliament.
12:40 p.m.
Deputy Managing Director, Innovation et développement économique Trois-Rivières
No.
12:40 p.m.
NDP
Robert Aubin NDP Trois-Rivières, QC
That is unbelievable. Thank you.
Mr. Boivin, I have a question for you about something the two port authorities mentioned.
What is in the letters patent that established your organization that is now hindering your development?
12:40 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Trois-Rivières Port Authority
Our letters patent were good for 20 years. They are still good. We must not touch them.
With the On Course for 2020 project, we collaborated with our city, our community and our residents on many things. The biggest problem we now have is that we lack the authority to develop the shoreline which, as you know, is in the heart of the Trois-Rivières downtown area. We do not have this authority. However, let me reassure you: we have been working with Transport Canada on this for almost two years.
The global trend is that port authorities can do this. There are positive signs as officials are telling us that this could be a good thing and we are even hearing this from the Minister's office. You will know that François-Philippe Champagne has publicly supported this type of project, the port wants it, the city wants it and the people want it.
It goes without saying that we need this authorization. I hope to get it in the next few weeks. It is not months away.
12:45 p.m.
NDP
Robert Aubin NDP Trois-Rivières, QC
It will happen before the election is called. That is good news.
12:45 p.m.
NDP
Robert Aubin NDP Trois-Rivières, QC
My colleagues are probably surprised that I am not talking about the HFR, but I know that people are in favour of it and that the economic actors in the Trois-Rivières area unanimously support it.
I will come back to the airport. As a result of the steps taken by the municipality and its economic development agency, IDE Trois-Rivières, there is some hope of getting a designated airport. I asked the Minister about it last week, when he appeared before the committee. He told me that there would not be any new designations before June, but that he was not necessarily closing the door.
12:45 p.m.
Deputy Managing Director, Innovation et développement économique Trois-Rivières
It is the chicken and the egg dilemma.
One of the first questions on the Transport Canada questionnaire for airport designation is how many passengers per year will we have. That is the problem. We have no passengers because we do not have an adequate terminal for passengers. It is the chicken and the egg dilemma.
Yes, Transport Canada will want to finance the project provided that we have a certain number of passengers. However, we cannot have any passengers until we have an adequate terminal. Ours dates back to 1963.
12:45 p.m.
NDP
Robert Aubin NDP Trois-Rivières, QC
I imagine that the studies done previously by low-cost private companies provided an estimate of the potential traffic.
Could that answer Transport Canada's question?
12:45 p.m.
Deputy Managing Director, Innovation et développement économique Trois-Rivières
A few years ago, when Sunwing wanted to offer flights out of Trois-Rivières, the company had planned a flight to Cuba once a week and a flight to Mexico once a week. When it conducted its market study, it immediately decided to double the number of flights.
Trois-Rivières is unique in that it has an incredible number of travel agencies, including Voyages à rabais, which is now one of the largest travel agencies. There many travel agencies, thus many possibilities. We are regularly approached by carriers that want to know when we are going to have a terminal. They are knocking at our door to offer flights from our city.
12:45 p.m.
NDP
Robert Aubin NDP Trois-Rivières, QC
All right, but I will ask my question again.
Would the numbers provided by these studies satisfy Transport Canada's requirements, or will it not accept them because they want to see real passengers?
12:45 p.m.
Deputy Managing Director, Innovation et développement économique Trois-Rivières
We can trust the studies because they were done by Sunwing. These studies belong to them and so we do not have this data. When Sunwing decided to double the number of flights, I think that was pretty telling.
12:45 p.m.
NDP
Robert Aubin NDP Trois-Rivières, QC
Mr. Boivin, do you want to add something.
If not, I have another question for you.
12:45 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Trois-Rivières Port Authority
I would like to add something.
I will turn to the Chair, who I met recently.
When the government asks us, the port authorities, to get closer to our communities, we want to do so, and so do the communities. I would ask that, if possible, the committee look at the request for authorization from Transport Canada, and that it make a recommendation soon. This is a global trend and Canada must adapt and modernize. In terms of the modernization of the act, it is a fundamental element, and we can do it right away, Mr. Aubin.
12:45 p.m.
Liberal
12:45 p.m.
Liberal
Ken Hardie Liberal Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC
First of all, Mr. Badawey complimented the Port of Trois-Rivières on your relationship with the community, but I have to tell you that this isn't shared out on the west coast. I think there are some difficulties in both public confidence and municipal relationships, which I think is part of the reason many on the west coast supported removing environmental assessments from the port. They really didn't trust them. It's difficult to apply different policies in different parts of the country when you're the federal government.
An issue on the west coast is the integrated planning between ports and what should be the complementary road and rail network. If you expand what you're doing in Trois-Rivières, will the railway be able to keep up with you?
12:50 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Trois-Rivières Port Authority
That's an excellent question.
We have special difficulties in the region. It's the big network of CN and CP. So, we're having all sorts of problems. There are paper barriers that I should tell you about. There are infrastructure problems. I'll give you an example. There is a bridge. It's 30 kilometres from the port, and it cannot sustain the load of the new railroad cars. So, for the grain coming out from the west, we can only fill them 75% or 80%. However, you're still paying for the full cargo. There are little issues like that, paper barrier problems with infrastructure and all that. We're not in the loop at all with the programs with the government and all that.
You can have the best, the most efficient port in the world, but if it's not working before or after the port—the rail, the road or in the St. Lawrence—you're doing it for nothing. You have to look at the whole chain of transportation, and we're doing that. Most of the ports now are doing it—certainly on the west coast in Vancouver and Prince Rupert. They're doing a wonderful job, I think, of doing that.
12:50 p.m.
Liberal
12:50 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Trois-Rivières Port Authority
It's a challenge, yes.
12:50 p.m.
Liberal
Ken Hardie Liberal Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC
This is a question for either port. Do you handle petroleum products?
12:50 p.m.
Vice-President, Public Affairs and Strategic Partnership, Quebec Port Authority
Yes, at the Port of Québec, more than half of the tonnage, I would say, is petroleum products.
12:50 p.m.
Vice-President, Public Affairs and Strategic Partnership, Quebec Port Authority
It's maybe 12 million tonnes of crude oil and about two million tonnes of refined products, mainly jet fuel.
12:50 p.m.
Liberal
Ken Hardie Liberal Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC
Got it.
Jet fuel and refined products are, in fact, the sort of thing that can be shipped out of Prince Rupert, but things like crude oil and unrefined products like bitumen can't, according to the oil moratorium. You're doing a balance of....
