It is a great pleasure for me to serve the American Association of Port Authorities as chairman of the Canadian Delegation again this year. Once again, I'm sure that the next 12 months will be filled with challenges of all sorts, including a financial crisis and a possible recession to face.
Port and marine transportation in Canada accounts for 100,000 jobs and $10 billion for the country's economy. Canada's ports are well-integrated in the international marine industry, affording safe harbors for any of the 50,000 ships sailing on the globe on a daily basis.
Seventeen Canadian port authorities account for 290 million tons of cargo annually, or more than 50 percent of Canada's marine trade. Most of them, with the exception of the Port of Montréal and the Port of Metro Vancouver (formerly the ports of Vancouver, Fraser River and North Fraser), are small businesses with fewer than 100 employees and less than $25 million in annual revenues. In my book, that means that a huge part of Canada's marine sector is under the management of some very dynamic and local administrations but with limited financial capacities when it comes to huge project financing.
In order to allow port authorities to fulfill their mission, which is to serve Canada's foreign trade, most of them will need access to financial resource to continue their growth. Thanks to the Canada Marine Act amendments approved on June 5, major investment in ports will be qualified to be considered within the federal government's infrastructure program. This amendment represents an important tool for ports to compete in the long term. When put together with the Gateways and Trade Corridors initiative, the federal government is really helping out the Canadian port system in creating the new capacity needed in the system. A good thing, indeed.
Whether the challenges comes from the Asian business which characterizes the Pacific region, or the transshipment of bulk and containerized cargo between the world and the Great Lakes of the Quebec-Ontario region, or the domestic and international trade handled by the ports in the Atlantic Provinces, challenges will be present in the Canadian port system. Plus trade in each of these areas of Canada is intrinsically linked to commerce flowing through U.S. ports of the same general region.
A thousand crystal balls would not be sufficient to predict exactly what ports all over Canada are going to face over the next year, especially in a period of financial and economic turmoil. But it will definitely be an exciting year.
