Madam Speaker, since being elected to this House a year and a half ago, I have repeatedly asked the transport minister and Transport Canada to address the pollution, noise and environmental damage caused by the interim protocol freighter anchorages in the Southern Gulf Islands.
The minister knows what the problem is. I want to talk about solutions to solve the inefficiencies at the Port of Vancouver. Container shipments from that port are highly efficient. Bulk freighters should be as well. There are busy ports in other countries where this problem is non-existent.
For years, the Port of Newcastle in Australia had the same problem. In 2007, on some days, there were reports of as many as 70 freighters anchored outside the port waiting to load. In June of that year, a ship dragged anchor and ran aground on a popular beach. The public outcry following that incident led to a review of the situation, and the Port of Newcastle no longer has a freighter anchorage problem.
It implemented a vessel arrival system. Ships must contact the port 14 days before they arrive. They can be instructed to slow down in order to match their arrival to their loading time at the port. The Port of Newcastle went from ships being at anchor for an average of 11 days to 64% of ships not anchoring at all. The remaining 36% averaged just three days at anchor.
Rotterdam, the biggest port in Europe, does not have an anchorage problem. It has a just-in-time system. Ships are contacted in advance and instructed to travel at slower speeds to arrive when there is space for them to port. Slower transit times not only reduce greenhouse emissions because the ships burn less bunker fuel, they also lower pollution near the port and populated areas.
Currently, the Port of Vancouver does not mandate contact from ships until they are two days away from the port. By that time, it is too late to change their arrival time. Once a ship with a contract to load goods arrives in Canadian waters, anchorages must be provided.
One piece of the freighter traffic problem is the increase in shipments of U.S. thermal coal through the Port of Vancouver. Washington, Oregon and California refused to expand their coal ports, so U.S. coal companies are shipping through Canada. This needs to end.
Thermal coal is burned to produce electricity. Here in Canada, we are shutting down coal-fired power plants. We recognize they have no place in our energy future. If the government is serious about climate action, it should ban the export of both Canadian and U.S. thermal coal.
Canadian grain shipments from the Port of Vancouver have grown by 6% per year. Inefficiencies in the grain supply and the inability to load grain in rainy weather are resulting in ships sitting at anchor for extended periods. It should interest many members of the House that costs associated with these delays at the Port of Vancouver are partially passed on to Canadian grain farmers. Farmers pay for these inefficiencies through the shipping component of their contracts, which is subtracted from the price of their grain. I hope this will motivate cross-party and cross-country collaboration to lobby the government to mandate improvements at the Port of Vancouver.
The creation of good regulations and policy will drive innovation, as it has in Australia and Europe. There is no legitimate reason why the Port of Vancouver should be so far behind in efficient management of its bulk shipping.