Transport committee  No, you wouldn't get a Canadian to go on board for two dollars an hour. I want to make sure that I set the record straight. With the new policy on temporary foreign workers—the new mandate and directive from ESDC—the foreign seafarers who do come to Canada and are working under a

Transport committee  I'll let you know where to write the cheque, if you want to help us out. That's not an issue. We've launched the initiative with our member companies, our partner companies. Like I said, it's called "Be a Seafarer". It's working. We now have apprentices going to school in order

Transport committee  We started a few months ago with a shortage of about 300 that was predicted for the fall. We've been able to reduce that gap down to about 100. We were able to fill all the jobs that were necessary to fill, and we've had a year where shipping companies were running every ship the

Transport committee  If people looked at the Great Lakes system right now they would see that a dozen or more oil tankers are operating within it all the time, accident free. The bigger aspect is, when you look at shipping oil, does it make any sense to ship our oil by pipeline down to Texas and the

Transport committee  Ninety per cent of everything you touch is moved by ship.

Transport committee  Acids, caustic sodas, everything's being shipped. If you can think of it, it travels by ship at one point or another in its life.

Transport committee  On the movement of empty containers, through the consultations with the government, I think it was a reasonable compromise on behalf of the Canadian industry. It was a piece of the industry that no one was doing. You don't want to see empty containers parked in every port, so the

Transport committee  To summarize, the difference between a foreign seafarer and a Canadian seafarer is about $14 an hour. That's the only difference. There's no difference in the work they do, other than the regulations in Canada, of course. We have our social systems. We have our social nets. We

Transport committee  Thank you. It's a great question. We met several years ago. We have maritime port councils, which are us, the teamsters and different unions that operate marine, rail and trucking, the whole scenario. During the meeting we had several years ago, we looked at the possibility of t

Transport committee  When you look at the differences, the Great Lakes are the greatest difference. It's the confined waters, the spaces that we operate in, and then if you look at the Arctic, it's the harsh conditions that our seafarers would work in there. The United States is different in that the

Transport committee  When you look at the needs of the seafarers right now in Canada, that's why we launched the initiative. It's because we do need another 300 to 400 seafarers in order to fill the gaps that are going to be coming up with retirements and through attrition within the industry. We thi

Transport committee  Interprovincial challenges are very few. We're a federally regulated industry, so 99% of what we do is in the federal jurisdiction. Our seafarers move freely from place to place across the country to work in any area, and we make sure they're trained in all areas and all aspects

Transport committee  Yes, absolutely. I think some people shy away from saying it, but I don't. I'm kind of known for that. There were initiatives recently from the U.S. to make some terminals in Duluth, Minnesota, and move cargo down through the seaway. I think if you look at the safety record of ta

Transport committee  Certainly, thank you. It's always a pleasure to see you, Madam Chair.

Transport committee  So that doesn't do anything for me. I just wasted 30 seconds.