Transport committee  Well, this is a new area for me, but from what I've seen there are provisions in our bill, and it seems like the Government of Canada has intentions to put data-sharing provisions into different parts of the supply chain. It's all about visibility, understanding what's coming and what's going, and making all of the parts flow more efficiently and more effectively together.

Transport committee  We represent the 17 Canada port authorities and the parts of the bill we're most familiar with are really the parts that are actually directly affecting the CPAs, so I'm not sure that I can really weigh in on that.

Transport committee  Thank you. It's a great question. I do remember that. Everything I will say is prefaced by.... We have real concerns with the governance, so that has to change. Those recommendations we made are hinging on this. I don't know that we can say yet that it will be an improvement. My sense is that maybe we were looking for answers to questions that have not yet been answered by the government themselves, which is why we've moved to how if this still has to be designed in terms of how the borrowing process will work, we need to be in the room while that's happening, and also our CFOs and our CEOs and those who do this professionally on a day-to-day basis, because we don't.

Transport committee  It's key. Ports needs to be nimbler. Financial flexibility is not just about borrowing limits. We haven't really talked about this, but the activities that ports can engage in—Ms. Gladu spoke to your small port.... There are impediments on what CPAs can do. One of the ways to be flexible is that perhaps there's an office building you can build, but you can generate revenue if you develop the property above that and use that somewhere else in the facility.

Transport committee  Perhaps I'll suggest that our chair and Jacques speak to that.

Transport committee  Well, certainly we see that reflected in the structure of some of the ports versus others in terms of additional seats on the board. I think what I'm struck with is that our ports definitely see themselves as part of corridors and systems so, yes, there is a balance between, and yes, the community impact...but they also understand their role and how it fits into the rail networks and the road networks in other parts of the country.

Transport committee  Well, what I would say is that one of the comments that was made by Michel Murray from the Syndicat canadien de la fonction publique on Monday was the concern that that union has with the appointment of the chair. He said that the individual who appoints the chair, that chair is going to be beholden to the minister.

Transport committee  I can't speak to the labour dispute issues. That's not an area that we would get into. There are parts of the bill that will help. I believe the system.... There's a strategy that's coming out. I think there's stuff that's in the bill that's meant to feed into the strategy. There's a lot that we still need to see, and so we probably can't really comment on that until we see what the federal government's approach is on that strategy.

Transport committee  It's an interesting question. It's not going to be a veto. I guess as it's intended it is a forum for the port to talk about what they want to do and what's important and what they are planning to do in the coming years and to provide an opportunity for the participants on the various committees to weigh in on how that would affect them.

Transport committee  It's a very good question. I suspect not, but I'd actually like to invite our chair to weigh in on this one. He's operating a port. I would invite Mr. Paquin to comment as well. It's better for the ports to weigh in on this one as they see it in their own circumstances.

Transport committee  I've been in this role for just under two years. I'm not super familiar with the U.S. system or how it's structured or what the role of the board there is relative to the operation of the port and whether that's the same as in Canada. We would have to dig a little further on that.

Transport committee  I'd say my impression, in meeting with our ports, is that this is top of mind for our ports in Canada today. I did a tour of the port of Montreal when I first came into the organization. The work they have done to protect the neighbouring residential areas from the port activities, that kind of work is being done around the country—

Transport committee  Well, there are a few concerns. I don't really remember all of Mr. Strahl's questions, but if we're talking about the appointment of the chair, we're really concerned that it creates confusion around the role of the chair. Serge Bijimine appeared on Monday, and he spoke about the role of ports for running the day-to-day operations, the strategic plan, but it's the minister who sets the strategic vision.

Transport committee  Serge Bijimine used an expression the other day that this is a bit of a “down payment” on future measures. I'd say the answer to that is that depends. From a ports perspective, one of the biggest priorities, because it's infrastructure, is whether or not ports have the means to make the investments needed on the infrastructure side going forward to be able to play that role in the efficient transport of goods.

Transport committee  The concern for the smaller ports really was in the heavy reporting that's associated with the bill. It'll be a question mark on whether this will be a lot of new work that's required or if it's a repackaging of material that's already being provided. One of our larger ports actually said they'd have to hire a couple of full-time people.