Thanks.
I appreciate your coming and virtually taking the time at committee today on a Thursday afternoon.
Not only are we facing supply chain issues, but we're also facing a massive housing crisis too. We're seeing the average cost of a Canadian home right now reaching $868,000, making it virtually unaffordable for a lot of young Canadians who are looking to get into the market. The Canadian Home Builders' Association said that sourcing materials has driven up the cost of materials and added tens of thousands of dollars to the cost of building a home.
The Bank of Canada said that the production shortage on various goods, such as appliances, plumbing fixtures, windows, as well as shipping bottlenecks at ports all over the world, continues to cause delays for many of the builders. I know that's not necessarily the area of expertise of the canola growers or the Produce Marketing Association, but I suspect you probably have some experience in seeing what these delays might cause.
I'm going to first go to Christian, if you're okay with that, Christian. Maybe you can just explain some of the issues happening at the ports.
You see on English Bay the big tankers sitting there, and they sit there for months in a lot of ways. Is it getting through the ports? Is it on our side, the Canadian side? Has it gone smoothly up to that point? Is it the trucking side? From your perspective, maybe break it down a little bit for us, if you don't mind.