Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I want to begin by acknowledging that I'm joining you from the traditional territory of the Algonquin Anishinabe peoples.
Ladies and gentlemen of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to meet with you today as part of your study on the state of Canada’s supply chain.
My name is Daniel-Robert Gooch and I have been in the role of president and CEO of the Association of Canadian Port Authorities for just under two months.
I am accompanied by Debbie Murray, who is our senior director of policy and regulatory affairs who will support me with some of your questions.
ACPA represents all 17 of Canada's port authorities, including our largest ports like Vancouver and Halifax, but also many smaller ports like Port Alberni and Saguenay. While they are all very different and face different challenges, they are all looking to the future and the investments needed to meet Canada's trade objectives while contributing in positive ways to the communities they serve and operating in financially, socially and environmentally sustainable manners.
Tomorrow, seaports across the Americas commemorate Western Hemisphere Ports Day to recognize the role of ports in the hemisphere's maritime industry and economic prosperity. This year, we are focusing on the role of ports in COVID-19 global pandemic response and recovery, so your study is very timely.
ACPA would like to commend Transport Minister Alghabra and his colleagues in cabinet for the government's attention to Canada's supply chains. The national supply chain summit in January was a robust discussion on the supply challenges Canada faces today and may soon face. We support this work.
The role of supply chains in the everyday lives of Canadians and the health of our export sectors has never been more prominent than it has been these past two years. Canada's port authorities have managed relatively well through the global disruptions we've seen in other parts of the world, but it is not guaranteed that we will be able to manage as well in the future. Our port authorities are fully committed to doing the work needed to ensure that we have adequate exporting capacity for the years ahead while also participating fully in Canada's commitments on climate change through decarbonization and innovative ways to improve the efficiency of our ports and supply chains.
Ton for ton, marine transport has the lowest greenhouse gas emissions, and our ports are improving on that. We have several recommendations on ways to improve supply chains in order to promote supply chain and navigation corridor resiliency, decarbonization and trade facilitation.
I want to talk first about empowering our ports. While the federal government has a role to play in providing financial support, which I'll speak to in a moment, having greater financial flexibilities for our port authorities would allow many of them to privately finance investments rather than relying solely on federal funding. This would require structural changes by the federal government to permit risk-based access to private sources of capital and acceleration of major infrastructure project completion.
For example, most port authorities have borrowing limits set decades ago, which are now insufficient to allow them to raise the capital needed for many of our port infrastructure needs. Amending borrowing limits must be simpler and quicker. We'd also like to see the lending criteria for ports be determined by commercial lenders, as is the case for other infrastructure businesses to access capital.
Other recommendations include providing continued national trade corridor funding to support supply chain efficiency, capacity, innovation and resilience, and filling the gap in what Canadian port authorities can fund themselves within the current regulatory framework and economic realities that each faces. Our port authorities have received about $880 million in NTCF funding. This valuable funding is allowing ports to make investments in new technology, such as at the port of Vancouver; to improve container inspection efficiency; to build new container facilities, such as the one in Halifax; to reduce border inspection turnaround times and to reduce port congestion. NTCF funding is helping smaller ports with ongoing maintenance needs and economic opportunities. Low volumes and revenues make self-funding challenging. There's more need here, and the Canada Infrastructure Bank may be able to help if we can get smaller projects to be eligible for that bank.
We need quicker approval of projects that have gone through appropriate impact assessment consultation. Ports and their partners in communities have invested significant resources into the project approval process. If ports are to optimize their role in supply chains, infrastructure projects must be approved in a timely manner. We encourage dedicated funding for decarbonization and the energy transition. This is a big need across our supply chains, and ACPA recommends creating a new fund or a specific stream within NTCF.
Finally, Canada has become a signatory of the Clydebank Declaration for Green Shipping Corridors, and we applaud that. This is an important recognition of the role of ports in decarbonization, and our port authorities are keen to support it, but we urge the federal government to scale up the support to port authorities across Canada.
In closing, Canada's port authorities are looking to the future, to how we can emerge and prosper after COVID-19. Recovery is an opportunity to transition Canada into a leadership role in green, inclusive, digital and resilient port supply chains. The recovery will require trade and global connections to build wealth. Our port authorities will be central to facilitating our country's sustainable recovery.
Thank you. I look forward to your questions.