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.