Transport committee  My understanding is that the commitment is to ban thermal coal by 2030.

Transport committee  My understanding is that it comes into force as of royal assent. It's section 62 that you're—

Transport committee  I'm sorry. We don't have that information at this time.

Transport committee  To the best of my knowledge, I don't think there's anything under section 62 of the Canada Marine Act that is outright prohibited. I think there are some regulations that may apply in the context of the handling of dangerous goods, but most of those are subject to the Transportation of Dangerous Goods Act, so there are no outright bans under the CMA.

Transport committee  I would say that the scope and the purpose of the Canada Marine Act is.... As it's set out in the “Purpose” section of the act, it does not refer to exports or imports of specific commodities. It has, in the purpose section, a reference to environmental protection in terms of the port operations, but that would be the extent of it.

International Trade committee  I would say there is a lot of discussion in respect of active vessel traffic management. Certainly, industry is participating in that engagement. It was part of a public engagement process, and I believe the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority is still engaging with the various entities, including shippers, including the—

International Trade committee  I would say they support certain aspects of it. They may have differences of opinion in terms of how certain aspects of vessel traffic management play out.

International Trade committee  In respect of the way labour relations work at the ports, the port authority—like the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority or the Prince Rupert Port Authority—is not actually the negotiating body with the ILWU. They aren't the employer in the situation. It is the B.C. Maritime Employers Association, which represents the private sector businesses that are tenants of the various ports.

International Trade committee  In the—

International Trade committee  As announced in the course of Bill C-33, we are undertaking work regarding the complementarity of ports, and that work is under way. We will then be looking at things that will include work around the opportunities, challenges, risks and opportunities associated with collaboration.

International Trade committee  I would say there are a number of ports worldwide that have demonstrated incredible amounts of innovation with respect to things like traffic management and the use of different data and tools to improve the flow of cargo through their ports. Some of their operating contexts are a bit different from those in Canada.

International Trade committee  We haven't formalized a committee in that regard. However, the department meets very regularly with the Association of Canadian Port Authorities and the individual CPAs on a number of initiatives being undertaken through Transport Canada. We are also in the process of establishing a regularized table to talk about the whole range of issues impacting ports within the Transport Canada purview, so we'll be establishing those regular meetings on an ongoing basis.

International Trade committee  Bill C-33 proposes a number of legislative amendments, particularly related to vessel traffic management. It would provide greater capacity for ports to actively manage vessel traffic going in and out, and help improve the fluidity of the supply chain in terms of the presence of vessels unloading and loading cargo.

International Trade committee  My understanding of the World Bank rating is that it includes a number of different factors. As you noted, the labour dispute was not part of those. As far as I'm aware, unless the methodology includes labour disputes, it would not necessarily have an impact on the ranking, except for the fact that you would see the downstream impacts of the labour dispute on the efficiency of the flow of cargo through the port.

International Trade committee  As I said, I can't speak about the methodology of the World Bank report. I would say that economic evidence demonstrated that the labour disruption disrupted the flow of cargo through the port and that it took a number of weeks, post-labour disruption, to clear out that backlog.