Transport Committee on Oct. 17th, 2022

[Mark Strahl, Conservative, Chilliwack—Hope, BC]

Obviously there is always a push and pull between companies and unions. Obviously, the closer it gets to the end of a contract, the more leverage a union has, and there's maybe not the incentive for a company to negotiate until those contracts are almost up.

How hopeful are you? What signs are you hearing from both the rail companies and the unions that they both understand the catastrophic impact that a work stoppage would have on the Canadian economy and supply chains? Are they close? What is the anticipation as those contracts are set to expire at the end of the year?

[Dave Carey]

We are concerned that there will be additional instability in the labour industry. As has been noted, it's not the date of stoppage; you start curtailing operations a week or so leading up to it. A week of downed rail capacity can mean a month to recover.

I'll see if Steve has anything more specific to answer, but I'm certainly concerned when we have that many happening. We would obviously like to see longer durations of labour contracts to provide some more stability, because we export about 60% of the world's supply of canola.

Australia is our biggest competitor in the Indo-Pacific region. They have a huge geographic advantage on us, and we've had significant deterioration of our international reputation as a shipper because of these things, whether it's rail blockades or labour shortages.

Steve, do you have anything else to add?

[Steve Pratte]

A number of these contracts come up in any given year. It's only occasionally that they get to the point of an actual labour action. We've seen back-to-work legislation several times in the last 50 years or 60 years, most recently in 2012. It's certainly, again, getting to that point....

With regard to reverberations, as we talked about in our testimony, the second and third order effects are not good for anyone and are certainly not good for the country as a whole. Again, this is one area that's within our control as humans and as individuals. I think we need to think about ways to respect the law but still provide that confidence in our reputation not only to our shippers but also to our international customers.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you very much, Mr. Pratte.

Thank you very much, Mr. Strahl.

Finally for today, we have Mr. El-Khoury.

Mr. El-Khoury, the floor is yours. You have five minutes.

[Fayçal El-Khoury, Liberal, Laval—Les Îles, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I welcome our esteemed witnesses. I thank them for agreeing to come before our committee, answer our questions and give us recommendations.

My first question is for Mr. Pratte.

Mr. Pratte, how can we further incentivize under-represented demographic groups to pursue a career in the transportation sector?

What discourages them from doing so, and what should be changed to attract them to this field?

[Steve Pratte]

I believe that question is directed towards me.

I really think that this is not my area of expertise, so—

[Fayçal El-Khoury, Liberal, Laval—Les Îles, QC]

Okay.

Is there anyone who could answer this question, please? I could repeat it in English if it's necessary.

[Angela Splinter]

No, I understand. You're asking how we can better attract under-represented groups into transportation occupations: women, youth, visible minorities.

I think there's a lot of work that we've done in this area. I've cited some of our youth research already and more work that we can do around women.

The research that we have done is very specific to our sector, so I think it might be worthwhile listening to some other sectors, because they could have some different insights to offer, but for us, it's those perennial issues, those perennial perceptual issues, that we continue to face. I think we need to keep addressing those head-on, which we are looking to do, as I mentioned, with our image campaign and other initiatives.

[Fayçal El-Khoury, Liberal, Laval—Les Îles, QC]

Madam Gowriluk, you said in your presentation that the transportation system is very critical to our agriculture system. Is it equally critical in air, land and sea? We know that Canada is a very active international exporting country. I would like to know the other effects, such as sea and air.

Besides that, you have added that you need a “robust strategy” in order to tackle this problem. Can you illustrate to this committee what you mean exactly by a robust strategy? I would like to understand more about it, please.

[Erin Gowriluk]

With respect to your first question in terms of how meaningful it is to Canadian farmers, Canadian farmers get paid when they deliver their grain. With the inability to deliver their grain to domestic and international markets, they don't get paid, so it's vitally critical for our Canadian farmers and for rural economies.

In terms of what the solution is around a robust strategy, I wouldn't be in a position to speak specifically to what that might look like, but I do think that we have a solid recommendation that was articulated in the final report issued by the task force, and that is around the formation of a council of experts that would report to the labour minister.

I think agriculture should have at least one representative at that table to inform that conversation, because I think back to Mr. Pratte's point: We can't continue to look at some of these issues related to work stoppages one at a time when we're facing 12 over the course of a two-year period. We require what the report says is a fundamental paradigm shift in the way in which we're dealing with these stoppages.

I think we should be relying on experts—I don't know that I would specifically be one of those individuals—to think more strategically in terms of how we can tackle this, because doing this one at a time and suffering the consequences.... I think it was Mr. Carey who indicated that every single time there's even a threat of a work stoppage, the Canadian economy begins to shut down as preparations are made to prepare for that work stoppage.

Something has to be done and, I would suggest, sooner rather than later.

[Fayçal El-Khoury, Liberal, Laval—Les Îles, QC]

Mr. Carey, do you have anything to add to what Madam Gowriluk said?

[Dave Carey]

I fully agree. It's integrated. We need trucks to get the grain from farm to elevator. We need the rail to get from elevator to port and then we need ships to be able to take it to the final destination.

As far as what we should do goes, as your colleague Mr. Badawey said at the outset, there are dozens of great reports. This is the newest one. It's about not weighing down shelves: It's about implementing and taking action on the recommendations. In theirs, the supply chain task force has a lot of really good recommendations from supply chain experts.

My hope is that with the study of this committee and others, we will start implementing, taking action and doing something. In terms of agriculture, it would be a huge opportunity to grow our exports and help feed the world in a time of global insecurity, but our capacity to move what we have now is limited. In agriculture, we're looking at 2% to 3% increases in yield year over year.

Looking at the long term, are we going to be able to move more down the road? I think that leaves us all in a precarious position. We need to start taking action. There are a lot of good reports that are ready to be taken into action, but they require leadership and accountability.

[Fayçal El-Khoury, Liberal, Laval—Les Îles, QC]

Thank you—

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you very much, Mr. El-Khoury. Unfortunately, your time is up.

[Fayçal El-Khoury, Liberal, Laval—Les Îles, QC]

Already?

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

I know. It goes quickly.

Thank you very much, Mr. Carey.

On behalf of this committee, I would like to thank all witnesses for their testimony today and for contributing to this very important study on the strength and the future of the Canadian economy in the short and the long terms.

With that, I wish you all a wonderful evening. This meeting is adjourned.