I fully concur with my colleague Mr. Ashton.
I'll come back to what he was saying about the presence of union representatives on the board of port authorities. The change that preceded this one meant that the union representatives who already sat on the Harbour Authority Board of Directors were driven out. There was a longshoreman on this board for some 15 years. Perhaps that allowed the parties to have a better dialogue.
I reiterate that I have a bit of a problem with the fact that a port authority reports to the government of the day. It's no secret that governments change from time to time, though some governments may last awhile. At some point, governments change and the wheel of political appointments is restarted and people come to sit on boards of directors on behalf of the new government.
We wonder if this is truly desirable for the port authority with all that it implies. The port authority promotes its port, manages its infrastructure and rents it out to the ships that dock at the port. It's a job that makes the port of Montreal or Vancouver attractive. We don't see what political appointments have to do with it.