Finance committee  Sure. We went as the plaintiff, and then a day later the city and the province joined the injunction.

Finance committee  Certainly, the cost of trucking had gone up. We saw that it was around 10% to 15%. I'd be curious to hear what they're actually shipping in Peterborough and who's shipping it. For volume suppliers who have the trucks picking up hundreds of thousands of dollars...a day, we're definitely seeing a linear relationship with the shortage of drivers—that's before the mandates—and the potential new shortage.

Finance committee  First of all, it was publicly disavowed by the Canadian Trucking Alliance and the Ontario Trucking Association. All of the major logistics companies that our companies use, the bonded companies, have publicly expressed that they had a 100% vaccination policy for their drivers. Those drivers who did not get vaccinated were reassigned to intra-country shipments.

Finance committee  It was our publicly expressed opinion at the beginning of the Ambassador Bridge blockade that there were existing laws that law enforcement on the ground could have enforced. Both the municipal and provincial law enforcement agencies that dealt with the roads leading to that bridge appeared paralyzed.

Finance committee  The automotive industry in Canada is very integrated with the American industry, as $50 million worth of auto parts cross the Ambassador Bridge every day, and about $50 million come back in the other direction. The blockade stopped carmaker plants in Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky and further afield in Tennessee.

Finance committee  What we saw on the Ambassador Bridge was that the drivers who had goods in long-haul vehicles were the people who were being blocked from delivering them. The people who were on the bridge were people with the closest association.... The trucks they had appeared to be pickup trucks that they drove to put in place in the middle of traffic.

Finance committee  Thank you. We can't stop time, so I appreciate your marking it.

Finance committee  Thank you, Chair, and members, for inviting me. I always appreciate the opportunity to have this forum and this platform. In November 2021, Canada reciprocated an October announcement by the U.S. that unvaccinated cross-border truck drivers would no longer be allowed to cross the border without requiring quarantine, by January.

Industry committee  Mr. Tsafos has alluded to it. You know, there is a great interplay between energy resources around the world, and our reliance on the types of critical minerals that underpin batteries and their deployment in both transportation and utilities as well as in other areas overlaps really well with China's global ambitions.

Industry committee  It's just the function of the way the business runs. You don't increase costs by putting your biggest components so far away that you'd eat your profits in transporting them. Mr. Fast plays fast and loose with rules of origin, but he and I spent a lot of time around the table at the TPP in those negotiations, and those rules of origins are in place for a reason.

Industry committee  Forget my opinion. Why don't we look at the investment decisions of the major automakers in North America, who are committing to generational investments in battery electric vehicle production throughout North America? That includes Mr. Masse pointing out “very close” in Michigan.

Industry committee  I'll agree with you there. I want more too.

Industry committee  You're welcome.

Industry committee  From a profitability point of view, it's almost necessary. You're talking about big sums of materials being processed to make smaller sums of usable components. They're big and they don't transport easily or cheaply. The global auto business is based on just-in-time delivery. Car companies try to take the biggest components and locate their sources close to where their final assembly is.

Industry committee  Brian, you're certainly a champion for your region. We've always spent time agreeing on a lot of things. I will recast your question by asking what you think they were thinking in Michigan the year before, when we landed $6 billion of investments in electric vehicles and battery manufacturing in Windsor, Oakville and Woodstock.