Mr. Bachrach, you've heard from every witness in this room, I think, that labour is a key issue.
We are certainly affected in the same manner as all of the other witnesses and all of the other sectors in Canada. There is a labour shortage in Canada. There is a specialized labour shortage in the maritime sector, and in the ferry sector we're no different from all of the others. Throughout the country, we're facing labour shortages. This is not new. This is not pandemic-related. This has taken on for a while.
So yes, indeed, the ferry operators have plans and have worked diligently to respond to those concerns. They have indeed advertised for positions. They have indeed done outreach to schools. There are a whole bunch of activities being done. The fact of the matter is that we're still dealing with a limited pool of potential workers in this sector.
Therefore there are two other possibilities, and for this we do need your help, and the help of the government in a way.
One is bringing people from outside. The federal government has started with international agreements to recognize the credentials of operators in different countries. We're not going to get replacements for all of our crews from Norway, Belgium and France. We need the government to concentrate on the countries where the biggest labour pool for our members is—the Philippines, Indonesia and others. That's the first step.
The second step is looking at our own regulations. Ferries that are operating in British Columbia, as an example, and similar ferries in Denmark for similar distances and similar numbers of passengers are requiring 16 crew members in B.C . versus nine in Denmark. That's a significant concern. That's regulatory, nothing else.
So there is—