Thank you, Chair, and thank you to the member for the question.
I'm a workers' representative, but I think I can speak a little on behalf the Canadian shipping companies. I'm sure they would allow me to do so. From our perspective, all of the Canadian shipping companies are very interested in taking up this work. It's work that has not really been tapped into at this point. I'm speaking specifically to containerized shipping. The majority of Canadian shipping is on bulk and breakbulk cargo, which moves a lot of natural resources and petroleum products. Moving consumer goods or containerized goods is an untapped area, and I think there's a lot of potential there.
It's not at all to take away work from the rail or the trucking lines, but to diversify the ability to move goods out of ports. We're hearing a lot about congestion in ports, so it would be useful to look at alternative ways to move some of those goods. There is a lot of opportunity and underdeveloped land along the seaway.
It's not just in Hamilton-Oshawa, as we discussed before, but all along the seaway. There has been a lot of discussion about how to tap into the U.S. Midwest market with Chicago and Cleveland, and to access even the GTA. About 500,000 containers are moved into the GTA every year, but that's done on truck and rail. If we can diversify that a little bit and move more of it via the marine mode, I think that would be beneficial for everybody.