Evidence of meeting #13 for Transport, Infrastructure and Communities in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was rail.
A recording is available from Parliament.
12:20 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Peter Schiefke
Thank you very much, Mr. Bachrach. I think Mr. Dowdall will very much appreciate that.
Mr. Dowdall, the floor is now yours. You have five minutes and seven seconds.
12:20 p.m.
Conservative
Terry Dowdall Conservative Simcoe—Grey, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I also want to thank all the presenters today. It's been fantastic to hear their statements about what's happening with Canada's supply chain.
I want to go back to a question asked by one of my colleagues about the effect of the pandemic on our supply chain. Certainly, from what I'm hearing, it wouldn't be the number one issue. A lot of it seems to be about climate change. All of those items are things we need to look at, but what I've heard consistently through this presentation from pretty much every individual.... As Julia said, regulatory processes and infrastructure.... It's infrastructure, infrastructure, infrastructure. I heard that from many other presentations, as well—that we need to do something, so these products can move in our country a lot faster than they are.
My question is about the amount of red tape required to get a process moving because, in the last seven years, I have heard about it consistently, whether the government is federal, provincial or municipal. These other issues, as I said, are often aside. They're going to happen, but I think the key is the infrastructure. The question I have for pretty much everyone is, do you think it's still too difficult to move projects ahead in a timely fashion? Has it gotten any better?
Each time, we say we're looking forward to federal partnerships and funding and things of that nature. That's all fantastic, but if we can't get those shovels in the ground because of that many roadblocks, are we moving ahead, or is that the main reason why we have a sore supply chain? Is it the fact that, no matter what the other issues are, we just don't have the infrastructure there?
As a follow-up, I will quickly ask, what are the easy things we could do in a fast way to hopefully get products moving a lot quicker?
12:20 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Railway Association of Canada
I'll jump right in. My answer to that would be that the sense of urgency to get shovels into the ground is only going to increase. So if there are delays, we have to address those delays. If there's regulatory holdback on certain projects, we need to be better, because extreme weather conditions will continue to be a major challenge and we have to respond more quickly.
One of the things we saw through COVID-19 was that the private sector and the government were able to work very closely to reduce the regulatory burden to make sure things got done a lot quicker. I think a lesson to be learned coming out of the pandemic is that we can make things happen faster if there's a sense of urgency.
12:25 p.m.
Conservative
Terry Dowdall Conservative Simcoe—Grey, ON
Are you optimistic that will happen? I can tell you, from my perspective of the frustration levels I see, we are years behind already. We have to act like we did with the pandemic on the issue of infrastructure.
12:25 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Railway Association of Canada
I agree with your statement. We have to act with a sense of urgency.
12:25 p.m.
Conservative
Terry Dowdall Conservative Simcoe—Grey, ON
Perfect.
Does anybody else want to comment on the timelines? Are they improving? I personally think they're the biggest crutch of what we're seeing here.
12:25 p.m.
Vice-President, Sales and Marketing, Grain and Fertilizers, Canadian Pacific Railway
I would add, if I may, that certainly CP supports any infrastructure projects that improve supply chain capacity, efficiency and resiliency, and many of the projects that are being applied for under the NTCF are exactly around these areas.
I can't really comment on whether things have improved or degraded, but I would say that our perspective is that there does need to be a greater sense of urgency.
Here's an example. The Port of Saint John applied almost a year and a half ago for funding under the NTCF to support its urgently needed capacity expansion project. It will be a significant improvement in supply chain resiliency and capacity. A year and a half later, that application is still waiting. There's an example of a long time frame that hopefully can be addressed.
12:25 p.m.
Conservative
Terry Dowdall Conservative Simcoe—Grey, ON
I have one quick question again. I know the Liberal government is going to increase the carbon tax—the latest such increase. Are you expecting that to have an impact on Canada's supply chain? Does anyone want to jump in? I guess that's a no. Crickets.
Thank you very much. I think I'm out of time, actually. That's just five minutes on my watch.
12:25 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Peter Schiefke
Thank you very much, Mr. Dowdall.
Next we have Mr. Iacono.
We'll go to Mr. Iacono for five minutes.
12:25 p.m.
Liberal
Angelo Iacono Liberal Alfred-Pellan, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'd also like to thank the witnesses for being here this morning.
Mr. Dagenais, can you explain the impact the COVID‑19 pandemic and supply chain issues have had on the Port of Montreal?
How have you tried to mitigate that impact? Can you tell us what worked and what didn't?
12:25 p.m.
Vice-President, Port Performance and Sustainable Development, Montreal Port Authority
Thank you, Mr. Iacono.
Yes, the COVID‑19 pandemic initially had an impact on workforce availability and operations, due to the health restrictions brought in in the early months.
Of course, afterwards, most of the issues were related to managing import and export timing. As I'm sure you've heard, cargo and vessels must arrive within a specific time frame, according to a schedule often determined weeks, if not months, in advance. In the continental supply chain, ships may well be set to arrive on specific dates, but if they dock five or six days late due to issues in ports elsewhere on the planet—
12:25 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Peter Schiefke
Excuse me, Mr. Dagenais. Can you please select your microphone at the bottom of your screen on the left-hand side?
12:25 p.m.
Vice-President, Port Performance and Sustainable Development, Montreal Port Authority
Is it better now? I just selected the right microphone.
12:25 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Peter Schiefke
I'm getting the nod. Thank you very much, Mr. Dagenais.
Please continue. I'm going to add time to the stopwatch due to technical issues.
12:25 p.m.
Vice-President, Port Performance and Sustainable Development, Montreal Port Authority
I was saying, basically, that first there were the pandemic-related health restrictions and issues with labour availability. Then we had to deal with ship delays, as did our clients. In addition, the fact that export cargo was not arriving at the same time as import ships also caused disruptions for our rail partners, who work on a very tight schedule and with clockwork precision.
12:30 p.m.
Liberal
Angelo Iacono Liberal Alfred-Pellan, QC
Thank you very much.
Mr. Dagenais, is there anything unique about the challenges facing the Port of Montreal compared to other Canadian ports? If so, can you elaborate on that?
12:30 p.m.
Vice-President, Port Performance and Sustainable Development, Montreal Port Authority
Does your question relate to current supply chains?
12:30 p.m.
Liberal
Angelo Iacono Liberal Alfred-Pellan, QC
Yes.
What differentiates the Port of Montreal from all other ports in Canada?
12:30 p.m.
Vice-President, Port Performance and Sustainable Development, Montreal Port Authority
I would say that it's not really a problem, it's more like a great opportunity.
As I said a little earlier in my remarks, the proposed business model for coming to Montreal makes most of our clients behave a little differently than when they go to coastal ports. We have a destination port business model. So the ships unload and fully reload, which helps our shipowners make better use of their marine assets.
In turn, it also means our rail partners and truckers can have as many import containers as they do export containers. So we have fewer empty container movements at our facilities; trade movements generate freight revenue in both directions. So that's a real opportunity for us.
12:30 p.m.
Liberal
Angelo Iacono Liberal Alfred-Pellan, QC
You mentioned in your opening remarks that you're not facing the same crises as the ports in the United States. Is that why you aren't?
12:30 p.m.
Vice-President, Port Performance and Sustainable Development, Montreal Port Authority
Yes, it is.
12:30 p.m.
Liberal
Angelo Iacono Liberal Alfred-Pellan, QC
Okay.
Do you know of any regulatory changes that would improve the flow of your operations and the supply chain?
12:30 p.m.
Vice-President, Port Performance and Sustainable Development, Montreal Port Authority
Absolutely. No amount of regulation would protect us from a future pandemic with global implications.
At the same time, the Montreal Port Authority has come through a period where we had two work stoppages during a conflict with the longshoremen. So I think we need to take steps to ensure that our maritime borders remain open, in the same way that our land borders are considered essential trade links. I believe we need to take a stand on that.
The second thing we're very interested in is everything related to supply chain innovation and visibility. Earlier, I talked about access to data, the overall level of cooperation and data sharing. The goal would be to foster better visibility at the place of origin and the destination.
12:30 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Peter Schiefke
Thank you very much, Mr. Iacono and Mr. Dagenais.
Next we go to Mr. Muys.
Mr. Muys, you have five minutes. The floor is yours.