Thank you so much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to all the witnesses for their testimony this afternoon. It's an important conversation. I suppose whether it affects your ridings or not depends on where you live in the country, but I will tell you, Mr. Chair, that it certainly affects my riding.
I live in Essex. I represent Essex, right next to Windsor. We have Lake St. Clair at the top, then Lake Erie and the Detroit River. I've had the opportunity, Mr. Chair, to visit the likes of ADM, which carries our grain. It is produced primarily in southwestern Ontario and shipped over to the United States. We then have all the aggregate, so the aggregate that comes from Manitoulin Island, as an example, and the steel that's carried to produce our vehicles is the same steel that's produced in Sault Ste. Marie.
This is a very important conversation, so I'm honoured to be here on this.
I would also add very quickly, Mr. Chair, that the Detroit River current runs at about 11 kilometres per hour, and it has been for as long as its history, in the research that I've done, in the history of what I know, and I don't think that's going to change any time soon.
I thought it was pretty good testimony from Madame Lagarde. She mentioned that shipping must go green. Ironically, when I was in Taiwan, I began to see what real green shipping looks like.
Ms. Lagarde, you also spoke about protecting the shorelines. Let me preface this by saying there is no question that with the very high levels of water in the Great Lakes, which are certainly receding, and receded about three feet over the last year.... I'm not sure what that means for the St. Lawrence Seaway.
Madame Lagarde, what, specifically, are your solutions? You mentioned solutions. I'm curious what your solutions would be.