Transport Committee on April 28th, 2022

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

I call the meeting to order.

Welcome to meeting number 14 of the Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities.

Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2) and the motion adopted by the committee on Monday, January 31, 2022, the committee is meeting to study the state of Canada's supply chain.

Today's meeting is taking place in a hybrid format, pursuant to the House order of Thursday, November 25, 2021. Members are attending in person and remotely using the Zoom application.

Per the directive of the Board of Internal Economy on March 10, 2022, all those attending the meeting in person must wear a mask, except for members who are at their places during proceedings.

I'd like to make a few comments for the benefit of the witnesses and members before we begin.

Please wait until I recognize you by name before speaking. For those participating by video conference, click on the microphone icon to activate your mike, and please mute yourself when you are not speaking.

For interpretation for those on Zoom, you have the choice at the bottom of your screen of floor audio, English or French. For those in the room, you can use the earpiece and select the desired channel.

As a reminder, all comments should be addressed through the chair. For members in the room, if you wish to speak, please raise your hand. For members on Zoom, please use your “raise hand” function. The clerk and I will manage the speaking order as best we can, and we appreciate your patience and understanding in this regard.

Colleagues, appearing before the committee today, we have Monsieur Serge Buy, chief executive officer of the Canadian Ferry Association; from the Chamber of Shipping, Robert Lewis-Manning, president; from Food and Beverage Canada, Ms. Kathleen Sullivan, chief executive officer; from the Institut de recherche en économie contemporaine, Hubert Rioux, researcher; from Sysco Canada, Randy White, president; and, from Walmart Canada, joining us in the hall today we have John Bayliss, executive vice-president and transformation officer, as well as Francis Lalonde, vice-president, transportation.

We will now begin with opening remarks from Walmart Canada.

Gentlemen, the floor is yours. You have five minutes.

[John Bayliss, Executive Vice-President and Transformation Officer, Walmart Canada]

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and good afternoon, members of the committee.

First and foremost, I really want to thank you for the opportunity to testify on the state of Canada's supply chains. My name is John Bayliss, and I'm chief transformation officer at Walmart Canada. With me today is my colleague Francis Lalonde, VP of transportation.

At Walmart Canada, one of the country's largest retailers, Francis and I are responsible for overseeing our supply chain network and transportation strategies. As you know, we operate coast to coast to coast, employing over 100,000 associates across Canada.

It's our job to ensure supply chains function efficiently so that Canadians can save money, live better and have access to the products they want and, most importantly, when they need them. As the world's largest integrated supply chain, that responsibility has never been more apparent than in these past two years.

It's fair to say that world events, changing customer expectations and new growth opportunities have necessitated a major investment in our Canadian supply chain. That's why, in the summer of 2020, only three months after the start of the pandemic, we committed over $3.5 billion into our store and supply chain infrastructure, making flagship investments across the country in Surrey, Calgary, Cornwall, Vaughan and Moncton.

As a proud Canadian, I'm very proud that this investment is our most ambitious investment program since our arrival in Canada over 25 years ago.

Walmart is on a journey to become also a regenerative company. That means we're aiming to use our size and scale to make a positive impact. Given the impact of supply chains on the environment, we see a sustainable supply chain as foundational to our long-term competitiveness, as well as a catalyst for clean growth and long-term strategic advantage.

As part of this, we're also committed to becoming carbon neutral globally, without the use of offsets, by 2040. Right here in Canada, we're very proud that we've committed to a mission to deliver on our promise to be 100% alternatively powered in our fleet by 2028.

Given our experience in global and domestic infrastructure, we're grateful for this opportunity to address the committee today and share recommendations on how to improve the resiliency and efficiency of Canada's supply chains.

I will turn it over to Francis Lalonde, who will go into further detail.

[Francis Lalonde, Vice-President, Transportation, Walmart Canada]

Thank you.

I would like to focus my recommendations on two aspects: the supply of labour and infrastructure.

Before the pandemic, Canada was dealing with a significant labour shortage in the supply chain and transportation sectors. The situation is only getting worse.

As a leading employer in Canada in transportation, we know that Canada can make significant investments in the supply chain infrastructure, but those investments may falter if Canada does not invest in the workforce.

We think that governments are key partners for accessing global talent and reducing career barriers in supply chains.

The first step goes through immigration. We recommend exploring ways to prioritize positions related to the supply chain and logistics as part of provincial nominee programs in order to attract global talent to Canada. That is essential, as many supply chain jobs in Canada are in communities with an aging population and a slowing growth rate. Without immigration, the long term trend will be the moving of those jobs to urban centres or the atrophying of supply chains. However, immigration is only one part of the solution.

It can cost from $10,000 to $15,000 in training for someone to obtain a commercial drivers license. We strongly encourage the federal government to establish a new qualified training program with a mandate to offset those training costs. It is essential that this funding be given to individuals and not to businesses. That would foster labour mobility, career flexibility and competition, in addition to reducing the financial barriers to entry into the profession.

When it comes to infrastructure, recent events have further emphasized the fragility of our supply chains and put increased pressure on businesses and networks to adapt. We recommend that the government adopt a supply chain strategy that takes into account future challenges in congestion, reduces transit time and ensures infrastructure redundancy in our trade corridors.

Finally, we must learn lessons from the pandemic, as well as from recent extreme weather events and develop, with the United States, a guide that ensures real-time responses to urgent trans-border regulatory exemption requests, so as to maintain the movement of essential goods in case of a supply chain crisis.

Walmart Canada is prepared to work with governments to ensure our supply chains' resilience over the coming decades.

We will be happy to answer any questions you may have.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you very much, Mr. Lalonde.

Next, from the Canadian Ferry Association, we have Mr. Serge Buy, who is the chief executive officer.

Mr. Buy, the floor is yours. You have five minutes.

[Serge Buy, Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Ferry Association]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

The ferry sector is definitely critical to Canada's supply chain. Annually, CFA members transport 55 million passengers, 22 million vehicles and billions of dollars of goods. Ferries connect urban, rural, remote and indigenous communities in every region of the country.

Importantly, ferries service communities are not adequately serviced by other modes of transportation, making them a vital link in supply chains for ferry-dependent communities. For example, Inuvik relies on ferry services to transport goods into the town and surrounding communities during warmer months. Ferries can bring in goods that cannot be safely transported over ice roads. Clearly, Newfoundland and Labrador and Vancouver Island are also serviced by our members. You can find examples throughout the Prairies, northern Canada and the rest of the country.

Disruptions to regular ferry services can significantly impact supply chains. Delayed or cancelled sailings can result in delayed deliveries to businesses. In extreme situations, this can result in shortages of fresh food, fuel and others goods in ferry-dependent communities because ferries transport goods as well, primarily agricultural and seafood products from communities for domestic consumption or exports, making delays in sailings a problem for those communities that lose revenues.

Indeed, disruption in ferry services can result in losses, for example, from the spoilage of freshly caught fish. It can also impact the broader supply chain and transportation networks. More goods may need to be shipped via air or land transportation. Truck traffic at ports can become more congested. Cargo at ports can back up. We believe that investing in the ferry sector can strengthen Canada's supply chain infrastructure in the face of crises like climate change.

I would like to give an example of how the ferry sector has enhanced the resiliency of Canada's supply chain. The flooding that swept through B.C. last year severely disrupted supply chain and transportation networks when sections of major highways and some rail lines were submerged or damaged. On Vancouver Island, shortages of food and fuel were reported. Some people were stranded. To help bring in critical supplies and transport stranded people, BC Ferries ran extra sailings between Victoria and Nanaimo, as well as along their Brentwood Bay-Mill Bay route while the highways were being cleaned up. That is a clear example of how ferries can be part of the solution in some of those crises.

Climate change, indeed, poses a major challenge for the ferry sector. Extreme weather events, erratic freeze-thaw cycles, flooding, erosion and other consequences of climate change have introduced an unprecedented level of uncertainty and risk for ferry operations and infrastructure. Supply chains can also be impacted by prolonged cancellations of ferry services, an increase in delays or cancelled trips and reduced planning and logistical certainty. The prospect of rising sea levels and even more frequent extreme weather events threaten the long-term sustainability of the sector. To withstand disruptions and damage because of climate change, sustained strategic investments to adapt operations, vessels, terminals and other supporting shore infrastructure will be needed. That will also be needed to reduce GHG emissions.

The pandemic has also intensified the chronic labour shortages that have plagued the ferry sector for some time. I noted the representative from Walmart talked about infrastructure and labour. I am talking about infrastructure and labour as well. We have had major challenges as a result of the pandemic. Transport Canada predicts 43% of the marine transportation workforce will retire in the next 10 years. On the ferry side, it will be much more, much earlier.

We also have an example as a result of the pandemic—examples throughout the country actually—of COVID-19 cases preventing ships from moving ahead. We've had that in Atlantic Canada, we've had that in the Prairies, we've had that in Ontario and Quebec, and today the island of Haida Gwaii on the west coast is being served by planes, because since Sunday ferries have not been able to transport passengers in view of a COVID outbreak there.

In some services the pandemic has definitely caused a sharp decline in ridership, and therefore, revenues. Difficult decisions will need to be made in the future, and that could impact service delivery.

Despite the sector being a critical link in Canada's supply chain, especially for ferry-dependent communities, the ferry sector is often overlooked. The sector has been repeatedly excluded from infrastructure programs. There is no dedicated support for the sector to adapt to climate change or reduce GHG emissions.

The sector needs a committed federal partner to address many of the critical issues facing the sector. Actually, the communities that are being served by ferries need a committed federal partner to address some of those issues.

Canadian supply chains need a reliable, affordable and safe ferry service to deliver goods to domestic and international markets and to respond to shocks across the transportation networks.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you very much, Mr. Buy.

Next, from the Chamber of Shipping we have Mr. Robert Lewis-Manning, president.

The floor is yours.

[Robert Lewis-Manning, President, Chamber of Shipping]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

As you have heard, it's been a very challenging few years for supply chain partners, but Canada has successfully maintained international trade despite challenges posed by protests, the pandemic and climate change events. This was achieved through collaboration with labour, engagement across supply chain actors, and federal departments that were receptive and adaptive to the needs of industries.

Our recommendations today come from the perspective of international ocean carriers, ships that move approximately 60% of Canada’s international trade, largely in western Canada.

Canada’s supply chain is a complex regime of interrelated capabilities that are governed through commercial contracts and regulatory frameworks, and that utilize independent and shared infrastructure resources. In most cases, the dependency means that problems and therefore solutions must consider more than one aspect or capability of the supply chain regime in order to be effective and avoid unintended consequences.

Many witnesses before me have already made excellent proposals such as the continued funding and allocation of resources from the national trade corridors fund, a strategic review of the supply chain and accelerated reviews of major infrastructure projects. In general, we have confidence that the government has heard these calls and will act upon them.

I would like to leave you with some additional ideas. First, with respect to intermodal cargo in containers, Canada should rapidly review regulatory processes to facilitate the movement of containers through terminals that are not currently managing containers and create additional surge capacity. This will require additional mobile radiation detection capability at ports of entry to be managed by the Canada Border Services Agency.

Second, with a severe shortage of industrial land in the B.C. Lower Mainland, the federal government should continue to support ports like Vancouver in acquiring additional industrial land, either temporarily or permanently, to support the management of intermodal cargo and its increased volumes. Managing cargo requires space and it is a limited and valuable commodity.

Third, Transport Canada should facilitate the expansion of short sea shipping to support additional container capacity. While it may have not been economically feasible even three years ago, it deserves reconsideration on a regional basis.

Fourth, Transport Canada should accelerate the efforts of the announced supply chain task force and put the onus on industry to identify supply chain inefficiencies. During the response period after the B.C. floods, Transport Canada facilitated dialogue, but it was the supply chain partners that developed short-term contingencies to address the delivery of critical supplies and the resumption of the service. It was very successful. Simply having all supply chain stakeholders provide input to regulators is not sufficient, nor will it result in timely actions and solutions.

Fifth, Transport Canada and the Port of Vancouver should move cautiously with the development of its active vessel traffic management system. While this won't be known to the committee members, this is a complex initiative and it deserves a very deliberate approach that engages all supply chain partners. We cannot afford to get this wrong when the system is already operating suboptimally.

Finally, Canada needs a national anchorage strategy to help manage surge capacity on the water, which is essential to ensure that the appropriate number and size of anchorages are available in less impacted areas to support Canada’s trade ambition and periodic supply chain disruptions.

Supply chain disruption not only impacts Canadian businesses and consumers, but also local coastal and indigenous communities. The vessel congestion experienced in the wake of the B.C. floods was significant and meant that an inordinate number of ships were seeking shelter in coastal waters. This unusual level of container ship congestion takes away much-needed anchorage capacity and surge capacity for Canadian exporters of other commodities like agricultural products and minerals. This type of situation is unsustainable, and we need the supply chain to be more productive and benefit all of Canada’s exporters and importers.

Three years of disruption has exposed systemic vulnerabilities that will need long-term planning, strategy and investment. It is likely that our supply chain will encounter further shocks and the Government of Canada, provinces, and supply chain partners need to prepare for this inevitability. We need contingency plans that support the smooth resumption of service, which, as we have learned, can last beyond six months.

In short, there likely isn’t a silver bullet to alleviate the current level of supply chain congestion but enabling and facilitating industry-led dialogue will accelerate short-term solutions, while longer-term solutions relating to supply chain resiliency are developed.

Thank you very much and I look forward to answering your questions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you very much, Mr. Lewis-Manning.

Next, we have Ms. Kathleen Sullivan, the chief executive officer of Food and Beverage Canada.

Ms. Sullivan, the floor is yours.

[Kathleen Sullivan, Chief Executive Officer, Food and Beverage Canada]

Thank you very much, and good afternoon.

My name is Kathleen Sullivan and I am CEO of Food and Beverage Canada, representing Canada's domestic food and beverage manufacturing sector.

I thank you for the invitation to speak today.

Food and beverage is one of Canada's largest manufacturing sectors. Found in every province, the industry includes almost 8,000 manufacturers, the vast majority of which are small businesses. The sector employs, at capacity, almost 300,000 workers and is central to Canada's food supply, taking raw agricultural products from across the country and turning them into the foods you find in your grocery store, from bread to cold cuts, yogourt to canned vegetables, bacon to butter.

Canada's food system is the foundation of this country's national food sovereignty. Our food system contributes to Canada's national, provincial and territorial economies; it supports our international trade goals; and it underpins local food production and food security.

The system is a complex supply chain. It connects almost 200,000 farms, 8,000 food and beverage manufacturers, 15,000 retail stores and 100,000 restaurants, all working together and with input suppliers and the transportation sector to ensure that Canadians like us have the food we need.

For the past two years Canada's food supply chain has been under inordinate and destabilizing pressure. Today, more than 90% of Canadian food companies are experiencing supply chain issues. A recent survey of my members listed supply chain disruptions among the top three issues impacting the sector, along with labour and competitiveness.

The reasons for supply chain disruptions are complex and include interruptions in global supply chains due to the pandemic, price inflation, natural disasters, labour shortages and transportation infrastructure disruptions.

To give you just a few examples, first, last November, flooding in B.C. had a significant impact on the food supply chain both within that province and also outside of it. The province, which is responsible for 9% of Canada's food processing, experienced the closure of highways, rail service and roads as a result of flooding. Transportation backups, driver shortages, along with the infrastructure barriers impacted the ability to move product from distribution centres and processing facilities to retail stores for consumers. Agriculture producers and food processors experienced significant strain due to the inability to secure animal feed and concern for animal welfare. As well, freight costs skyrocketed and in fact remain high compared to pre-flood levels.

In March a potential strike at Canada Pacific Railway, which of course turned into a very brief strike, raised significant concerns about the ways in which Canada's food system depends on a reliable transportation infrastructure to ensure that Canadians have access to the food they need.

Most recently and tragically, the war in Ukraine has led to increases in the price of wheat and Canadian flour, with Russia and Ukraine combined representing almost 30% of the world's wheat exports.

The most pressing concern for supply chain stability right now is labour. Food and beverage is the largest manufacturing employer in the country, but today Canadian food and beverage manufacturers are short 20% to 25% of their workforce, which is absolutely staggering. The labour shortage has resulted in a 20% reduction in domestic food output and it's our expectation that these shortages will exist even after the pandemic, and in fact, become worse. As an example, we anticipate one quarter of the industry's workforce will reach the age of 65 in the next five years.

Recent changes to the temporary foreign worker program, which Food and Beverage Canada was advocating extensively for, will absolutely provide some necessary and welcome short-term relief for Canadian companies as industry continues to work with government on longer-term measures to address labour issues.

Work on a national workforce strategic plan for the agri-food sector, in partnership with my organization, the Canadian Federation of Agriculture and the Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council will also help to identify medium- and long-term solutions to address our workforce challenges and I think could be a blueprint for other sectors as well.

We would welcome the opportunity to continue updating you on the progress of that work.

Finally, I do want to point out, as I noted earlier, that the vast majority of companies in Canada's food and beverage manufacturing sector are small businesses. Work on a code of conduct with Canada's grocery retail sector will, I think, also be very instrumental in helping to improve supply chain issues.

In closing, I would like to acknowledge the dedication of everyone in Canada's food system over the past two years as they worked to keep the food supply chain operating in Canada, which is not a small feat. Working together, they have continued to ensure that Canadians have access to Canadian food.

I look forward to your questions. Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you very much, Ms. Sullivan.

We now go to Hubert Rioux, from the Institut de recherche en économie contemporaine.

Mr. Rioux, you have the floor for five minutes.

[Hubert Rioux, Researcher, Institut de recherche en économie contemporaine]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Good afternoon, everyone.

I am here today on behalf of the Institut de recherche en économie contemporaine, an independent professional research organization specializing in the analysis of industrial, agri-food and financial policies.

Over the past two years, we have created a research thrust on matters related to reindustrialization, production relocation and manufacturing import substitution. Those trends are related to a significant reconfiguration movement of western economies' supply chains, which is gradually reversing the outsourcing movement toward low wage countries, as well as the internationalization of supply processes in intermediate inputs, which had involved the just-in-time method since the 1990s.

The health crisis has obviously emphasized and accelerated that reconfiguration, but perhaps its main effect has been to highlight the growing risks global supply chains must address. Those risks include, for example, economic and financial crises, climate change, more frequent trade disputes, the resurgence of economic nationalism, widespread geopolitical instability, migration movements, cyber-attacks, and so on.

Among systemic risks—

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

I apologize for interrupting you, Mr. Rioux, but bells are now ringing to announce a vote in the House of Commons, so I have to ask my colleagues whether they agree with letting you continue your presentation.

Are there any objections?

[Some hon. members]

No.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you very much.

You may continue, Mr. Rioux.

[Hubert Rioux]

I was saying that, among the risks I just brought up, the most immediate for companies, especially those in Canada, are growing costs, especially the cost of marine transportation. Since early 2020, the average cost of international transportation by 40-foot container has increased more than fivefold. The cost of transportation from Asia to Europe has increased especially quickly, but the cost associated with routes between Asia and North America and between Europe and North America has also more than doubled.

In that context, both European Union countries and the United States have already implemented a wide range of initiatives to shorten supply chains. During 2020, for example, the European Commission published an industrial strategy for Europe, and one of its main objectives was to strengthen the European Union's strategic autonomy. Among other things, that policy proposes networking initiatives—in other words, the forming of industrial alliances in order to replace imports with local procurement and European production in a number of key sectors.

In 2021, the Biden administration, in the United States, published a report that identified critical sectors for which the American supply and production chains had to be strengthened. We are talking about the sectors involving semiconductors, high-capacity batteries, rare earths and strategic minerals such as lithium and graphite, as well as pharmaceutical products and their active ingredients. In addition, the Biden government established a consortium in charge of selecting up to 100 pharmaceuticals of strategic interest for which production will have to be partially relocated to the United States. Investments of several billion dollars were also announced to stimulate production and strengthen local supply chains in the agri-food sector.

Compared with western economies that are currently implementing very vigorous relocation policies, Canada has been rather modest. Since the 1980s, even despite the awareness the health crisis has brought, the Canadian federal government has persisted in fostering a more liberal and light-touch approach in economic development. It has not adopted any industrial policies per se. This is still true two years after Canada's Industry Strategy Council submitted its report.

We have some suggestions that are likely to promote the substitution of Canadian manufacturing imports, including support for research and development and for the commercialization of Canadian innovations, as well as support for automating manufacturing companies. We also suggest the implementation of carbon tariffs at the border, increased support for exporters, networking platforms for producers and local suppliers, as well as preferential public procurement policies.

I will be happy to talk more about this with anyone who is interested.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you very much, Mr. Rioux.

Colleagues, given that the vote has been called, I propose, with your approval, that we conclude today's meeting with the introductory remarks from Mr. White, the president of Sysco Canada. Does this meet with your approval?

Seeing no objection, Mr. White, the floor is now yours.

[Randy White, President, Sysco Canada]

Thank you and good afternoon, Mr. Chair and members of the committee. Thanks for the opportunity to appear before you today with my industry colleagues.

My name is Randy White and I'm the president of Sysco Canada. Sysco Canada is a national leader in selling, marketing and distributing food and non-food products to over 45,000 active clients in restaurants, health care, long-term care, retirement facilities, educational facilities, lodging establishments and other food-away-from-home businesses and customers. Our business model includes fresh, frozen, dry goods, produce, dairy, meat, seafood, as well as paper products, food service packaging and all other supplies in the industry.

We are a major economic driver from coast to coast and we employ over 5,000 Canadian associates operating out of 25 significant facilities, including our facility in Monsieur Barsalou-Duval’s riding. We deliver to every province and territory with a fleet of more than 600 trucks. In addition, we are proud participants in the Government of Canada’s nutrition north program, helping to deliver healthy quality food products to some of the most remote locations in Canada.

At Sysco, we are dedicated to delivering the highest standards of food safety, reliability and quality in the food supply network in Canada and around the world. Our expertise is robust and very consistent with food supply chain management and it is second to none. During the earliest days of the pandemic, as well as more recently with the challenges of the B.C. extreme flooding situation, Sysco was at the front of the line helping to solve supply chain problems and logistical issues to ensure people in the hardest-hit regions were able to receive food and other supplies. We have the right expertise, the right experience and the right resources to bring to the table to work with the Canadian government in helping look for solutions.

Mr. Chair, this committee is studying Canada’s supply chain management and it is very timely. I would like to raise three specific areas where companies like ours need the Canadian government to support and help, where possible.

First and foremost, supply chain success is really about people. Our people at Sysco, our drivers, our warehouse associates and our teams, are what allow us to get food from the farm to our customers across the country. I know that we are not alone, as we are hearing about this today in many ways, saying that the labour shortage is at all-time high. In fact, here is a statistic. The latest quarter at the end of the last calendar year showed that there were over 22,000 open truck driver positions across Canada. That number has continued to increase. It's an astronomical number. Across our network, we require more drivers, more warehouse associates, more employees in general to ensure we are able to continue servicing our clients, providing food in government settings as well as the private sector.

We note the recent federal government's changes to the temporary foreign worker system announced earlier this year. However, at the top of this, what we really need, and we need it now, is speedier approval of applications to get these people into the system and into the general workforce and into our workforce faster than the current pace.

The second item, which we saw during the pandemic and certainly during the B.C. flooding, was a patchwork of regulations that actually hampered our ability to get food and other essential supplies across the country. For example, for many of our drivers, the only way to get supplies into isolated parts of British Columbia was to go out of Canada, through the United States and back across the Canadian border. Unfortunately, in many cases they were stuck at border crossings with understandable COVID regulation issues that changed sometimes by the hour. They were applied unevenly. This led to unnecessary delays for food and supplies for Canadians who needed them desperately. With the minister responsible for emergency preparedness recently appointed, one of his priorities needs to be to work with the provinces to establish protocols to help cut unnecessary red tape and restrictions in these times of crisis. This is a very important point.

My third point is that in budget 2022 the government had noted the need for heavy-duty electric vehicles to be part of the solution in the fight against climate change and the battle to get to net zero. Sysco Canada wants to participate in this goal. It is very well known that electric vehicle tractor-trailers are extremely expensive. We want to work with the federal government and provincial governments to accelerate the adoption of EV transport equipment to help meet these targets.

Given our track record in other countries and elsewhere, we would be a natural partner for the federal government in this challenge. These are some of my thoughts to put on the table today with the other thoughts. I'm sure we can get to further discussion on this at some point in the future.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, committee. I look forward to engaging further on these ideas.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you very much, Mr. White.

On behalf of all committee members, I want to thank all of the witnesses for being here today and for sharing your opening remarks. Unfortunately, as is the case very rarely, we will not be able to get to the line of questioning today.

That being said, the clerk has indicated his sincere joy in working with you to try to ensure that we can get you on in subsequent meetings. I believe we have three meetings left where we will continue our discussion on this issue. We look forward to having you back and joining other witnesses to give our members opportunities to ask you questions.

Thank you very much, everyone.

Mr. Barsalou-Duval.

[Xavier Barsalou-Duval, Bloc, Pierre-Boucher—Les Patriotes—Verchères, QC]

Mr. Chair, why are we not resuming the meeting after the vote? Is it because there won't be enough time or because another committee will need this room?

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

That's unfortunately the reason, Mr. Barsalou‑Duval. The vote is scheduled for around 5:15 p.m. As 10 minutes are needed for committee members to come back, that brings us to 5:30 p.m., which is when our meeting is supposed to end. It's unfortunate.

Thank you very much, Mr. Barsalou‑Duval.

Thank you, everyone.

Mr. Badawey, you have a motion you wanted to put forward.

[Vance Badawey, Liberal, Niagara Centre, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

If I may, we are looking at some future studies and I would like to get ahead of the game with respect to communicating to the Liaison Committee with respect to our travel plans into the fall season. We are looking at port expansion, we are looking at the port modernization studies. I would like to put a motion forward:

That, in relation to the committee's study on large port infrastructure expansion projects in Canada, the clerk of the committee, in consultation with the Chair, prepare a preliminary travel submission respecting the committee's proposed travel to St. Johns, NFLD, Halifax, NS, Montreal, QC, Hamilton-Niagara region, Vancouver, BC, Prince Rupert, BC and Seattle, Washington, USA, Port of Rotterdam, Netherlands in the Fall of 2022.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you very much, Mr. Badawey.

Is there any discussion or comments on that?

[Churence Rogers, Liberal, Bonavista—Burin—Trinity, NL]

I support that motion, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Mr. Barsalou-Duval.

[Xavier Barsalou-Duval, Bloc, Pierre-Boucher—Les Patriotes—Verchères, QC]

Mr. Chair, I don't have anything to say about the motion. However, since my colleague moved a motion, I will have one to move afterwards, as well.