Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to inform you that the Port of Montreal will finish up the year 1996 in very good shape.
By the end of the year, there will be a 3 per cent increase in cargo handled. There was a spectacular 10 per cent jump in the volume of container traffic during the first 11 months of the year.
This increase is attributable to shipowners' confidence in Montreal's port facilities and in the quality of services available there. It is important to remember that a good part of this increase came about at the expense of the ports of New York and Baltimore.
The port authority is expected to post a net profit for the seventeenth year in a row. This profit should be in the neighbourhood of $11 million.
We pay tribute to the work of the port's administrators and we urge them to keep up the good work they are doing as the engine of Montreal's economy.