Thank you.
Good morning, Mr. Chair and members of the committee.
I also want to acknowledge my colleagues from the ports of Hamilton and Nanaimo, whose remarks accurately reflect the concerns we are having in Quebec.
Your work today is focused directly on Canada's competitiveness and the ambition to double exports in 10 years. To achieve that, one key condition is the reliability of our existing infrastructure. Without that, there is no predictability, no growth and no sustainable diversification. Over the past year at the head of the Port of Québec, I have been assessing the importance of the public infrastructure we manage to serve the Canadian economy and supply chains. Modernizing that infrastructure is not just about maintaining a public good, but about protecting a lever for competitiveness and economic sovereignty.
The Port of Québec is the oldest port in the country and an essential link in the St. Lawrence corridor. We handle 28 million tonnes of goods annually worth $15 billion. We welcome close to 1,000 vessels, and we support 12,000 jobs. As the last deep-water port in the St. Lawrence, our direct connection to the heart of the continent enables us to accommodate large vessels and offer economies of scale that result in lower costs for businesses and, ultimately, better affordability for Canadians. In 2025, our revenues exceeded $70 million, making ours the fourth-largest port in the country. However, this performance relies on wharves, nearly half of which will be over 100 years old by 2040.
This past January, we had a concrete reminder: 60 metres of our wharf 25 collapsed. No one was injured and the area was closed, but the incident illustrates what happens when 100-year-old infrastructure reaches the end of its life, and it especially reminds us of what awaits if we delay action: a loss of capacity, additional costs and increased vulnerability in supply chains.
In November 2025, we launched the largest investment plan in our history, which we estimate to be $1.7 billion over 10 years, to rebuild our critical infrastructure. Our goal is clear: secure our gains, build resilience and position ourselves for the future. To deliver the first phase of this plan, over the next four years, we are seeking a federal contribution of between $340 million and $380 million—approximately half the cost. This plan is supported at the municipal, provincial and regional levels, as well as by Minister Lightbound. Private investments of $220 million have already been confirmed for this first phase. The 10‑year impact is significant: close to $1.8 billion toward the Canadian GDP and $1.1 billion in tax revenue. This is a project that will protect our port capacity in Quebec City and create tangible economic value for our country. These benefits are consistent with the St. Lawrence corridor, where each port plays a complementary role: Montreal opens, Quebec consolidates, Trois-Rivières ensures fluidity, Saguenay and Sept‑Îles support strategic sectors. We can't diversify our markets if the infrastructure isn't resilient, and we can't support growth without some redundancy in the corridor. This complementarity rooted in each region is the network's strength.
The container terminal project led by QSL is directly based on this complementarity. Developed on existing facilities, without encroaching on the river and without dredging, it will add needed capacity to the corridor and reduce logistical costs for eastern Quebec. It's not a volume-movement project. It's a project that will strengthen the entire corridor. The latest federal budget also identified Quebec City and Hamilton as ports for the export of containers, which confirms that direction.
Ensuring the resilience of the corridor also means reviewing our tools. Maintaining multi-generational public infrastructure has a real cost, and the current mechanisms don't always reflect that. The time has come to modernize the legislative framework that applies to port authorities to carefully diversify our levers and align our governance model with the strategic scope of the assets we manage.
The direction is clear. If we truly want to diversify our markets and reduce our vulnerabilities in a highly volatile global economic and political environment, we must first ensure that our wharves and facilities are sustainable. These are the foundations that enable trade to take place and, above all, to grow every day. If we want them to continue to play their role over the next few decades, we need to modernize them now, while we still have control over them and before they end up at the bottom of the river, like our wharf 25. We have a coherent network, engaged partners, a clear vision and ready projects. We must now consolidate our achievements so that the next 50 years will live up to Canada's ambitions.
Thank you for your attention.