Speech (House debate)

{
    "time": "2018-05-03 18:10:00",
    "attribution": {
        "en": "Ms. Elizabeth May (Saanich\u2014Gulf Islands, GP)",
        "fr": "Mme Elizabeth May (Saanich\u2014Gulf Islands, PV)"
    },
    "content": {
        "en": "<p data-HoCid=\"5381916\" data-originallang=\"en\">Madam Speaker, it is an honour to rise tonight at adjournment proceedings to pursue a question I asked. I am really pleased to bring it up when not too much time has passed since the question was raised. It was toward the end of March this year, when we were seeing Prairie grain shipments almost at a standstill when the shippers, CN and CP, were unable to bring forward enough railcars to move the grain. It was of crisis proportions, but it was not the first time this had happened.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"5381917\" data-originallang=\"en\">I will briefly review the question I asked, which was to point out that millions of tons of grain were stuck on Prairie farms and in grain elevators. However, it was connected to a problem we were also experiencing on the coast of British Columbia, where freighters and container ships waiting to pick up that grain in the port of Vancouver were backed up and using the waters of the Salish Sea essentially as a free parking lot. The port of Vancouver was backed up, so as the container ships were waiting to go in and out of the port of Vancouver, which could each have three and four different containers within them, they would go back to collect grain and then go back to sit off Plumper Sound in the Salish Sea in my riding waiting to know if the grain had been delivered.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"5381918\" data-originallang=\"en\">The knock-on effects of poor service by CN and CP are real pain and economic trouble for the Prairie grain farmers, an inefficient port of Vancouver, and a significant cost in quality of life to people living in Saanich\u2014Gulf Islands and Nanaimo\u2014Ladysmith, where these container ships were sitting off of Gabriola Island.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"5381919\" data-originallang=\"en\">Members will be surprised to know that these anchorages for container ships off Saanich\u2014Gulf Islands and Nanaimo\u2014Ladysmith are available legally, but in that sense are largely unregulated, and there are no fees paid for sitting in the waters off Ganges, Plumper Sound, or Pender Island. </p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"5381920\" data-originallang=\"en\">These enormous factory ships often have lights on through the night. I have talked to constituents who said that after they turn off all the lights in their house, they can still read a book because of the lights from the ships stuck there waiting.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"5381921\" data-originallang=\"en\">It is a real cost in quality of life that we do not have an efficient rail service to deliver grain on time. It costs money to the shippers, the farmers, and those buying the grain. There needs to be a whole-of-government approach. A the t least, Transport Canada needs to start figuring out how we make sure we move goods quickly and effectively. Perhaps through a computerized system, the port of Vancouver could tell the grain farmers when to move the grain.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"5381922\" data-originallang=\"en\">By the way, we used to have a better system when we had the Wheat Board. The Wheat Board did a better job in synchronizing shipments, and this problem did not come up. However, we had a crisis in 2014. On Vancouver Island, we were two days away from livestock operations not being able to get any feed because none of the mills that process the grain into livestock feed had any grain. The farmers had to band together and hire trucks. Again it was a big cost and poor service.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"5381923\" data-originallang=\"en\">I know that Bill <a data-HoCid=\"8945674\" href=\"/bills/42-1/C-49/\" title=\"An Act to amend the Canada Transportation Act and other Acts respecting transportation and to make related and consequential amendments to other Acts\">C-49</a>, which we just voted on in the House, would help. There would be penalties for the shippers. From 1918 until 1995, this railway was a crown corporation, and it worked much better. What do we do to get goods moving in this country? Do we need to make it a crown corporation again?</p>",
        "fr": "<p data-HoCid=\"5381916\" data-originallang=\"en\">Madame la Pr\u00e9sidente, c'est un honneur de prendre la parole ce soir dans le cadre du d\u00e9bat d'ajournement pour revenir sur une question que j'ai d\u00e9j\u00e0 pos\u00e9e. Je suis tr\u00e8s contente de pouvoir en reparler alors que peu de temps s'est \u00e9coul\u00e9 depuis que je l'ai soulev\u00e9e pour la premi\u00e8re fois. Vers la fin du mois de mars dernier, des cargaisons de c\u00e9r\u00e9ales des Pairies \u00e9taient bloqu\u00e9es, car les transporteurs, le CN et le CP, \u00e9taient incapables de mettre \u00e0 disposition suffisamment de wagons pour acheminer le grain.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"5381917\" data-originallang=\"en\">Je vais rappeler bri\u00e8vement la question que j'ai pos\u00e9e. J'ai soulign\u00e9 que des millions de tonnes de grains dormaient dans les fermes et les silos des Prairies et que c'\u00e9tait li\u00e9 \u00e0 un autre probl\u00e8me qu'il y avait sur la c\u00f4te de la Colombie-Britannique, o\u00f9 des cargos et des porte-conteneurs qui attendaient l'arriv\u00e9e du grain dans le port de Vancouver \u00e9taient refoul\u00e9s et utilisaient les eaux de la mer des Salish comme stationnement gratuit. Le port de Vancouver fonctionnait au maximum de sa capacit\u00e9. Ainsi, entre leurs all\u00e9es et retours au port de Vancouver, o\u00f9 le grain n'arrivait pas, les porte-conteneurs, qui pouvaient chacun transporter trois ou quatre conteneurs, s'installaient pr\u00e8s du d\u00e9troit de Plumper dans la mer des Salish, dans ma circonscription, en attendant de savoir si le grain avait \u00e9t\u00e9 livr\u00e9.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"5381918\" data-originallang=\"en\">Le mauvais service offert par le CN et le CP entra\u00eene des probl\u00e8mes \u00e9conomiques graves pour les producteurs de grain des Prairies, nuit \u00e0 la performance du port de Vancouver et diminue grandement la qualit\u00e9 de vie des gens de Saanich\u2014Gulf Islands et de Nanaimo\u2014Ladysmith, o\u00f9 les porte-conteneurs mouillent au large de l'\u00eele Gabriola. </p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"5381919\" data-originallang=\"en\">Les d\u00e9put\u00e9s apprendront avec stup\u00e9faction que le mouillage des porte-conteneurs au large de Saanich\u2014Gulf Islands et de Nanaimo\u2014Ladysmith est tout \u00e0 fait l\u00e9gal, mais qu'il n'est pratiquement pas r\u00e9glement\u00e9 et qu'aucun droit n'est exig\u00e9 pour mouiller au large de Ganges, de Plumper Sound ou de l'\u00eele Pender. </p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"5381920\" data-originallang=\"en\">Ces \u00e9normes navires-usines laissent parfois leurs feux allum\u00e9s toute la nuit. Des gens de ma circonscription m'ont dit que m\u00eame une fois toutes les lampes de leur maison \u00e9teintes ils peuvent encore lire un livre en raison des feux de tous les bateaux qui sont l\u00e0 en attente. </p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"5381921\" data-originallang=\"en\">L'absence d'un service ferroviaire efficient pour transporter le grain \u00e0 temps nuit vraiment \u00e0 la qualit\u00e9 de vie. Les transporteurs, les producteurs de grain et les acheteurs perdent de l'argent. Il faut une approche pangouvernementale. Transports Canada devrait au moins commencer \u00e0 chercher une solution pour que nous puissions transporter les marchandises rapidement et de mani\u00e8re efficace. Peut-\u00eatre qu'au moyen d'un syst\u00e8me informatis\u00e9, le port de Vancouver pourrait indiquer aux producteurs de grain quel est le meilleur moment pour exp\u00e9dier leur grain. </p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"5381922\" data-originallang=\"en\">En passant, nous avions un meilleur syst\u00e8me sous la Commission canadienne du bl\u00e9. Elle coordonnait mieux l'exp\u00e9dition et ce probl\u00e8me ne se produisait pas. Cependant, nous avons eu une crise en 2014. Sur l'\u00eele de Vancouver, nous \u00e9tions \u00e0 deux jours de ne pas pouvoir nourrir le b\u00e9tail, car les provenderies qui traitaient le grain destin\u00e9 aux activit\u00e9s d'\u00e9levage n'avaient plus rien. Les producteurs ont d\u00fb faire cause commune et embaucher des camionneurs. Le mauvais service des compagnies ferroviaires leur a co\u00fbt\u00e9 cher. </p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"5381923\" data-originallang=\"en\">Je sais que le projet de loi <a data-HoCid=\"8945674\" href=\"/bills/42-1/C-49/\" title=\"An Act to amend the Canada Transportation Act and other Acts respecting transportation and to make related and consequential amendments to other Acts\">C-49</a>, sur lequel la Chambre vient de voter, aiderait. Les transporteurs seraient assujettis \u00e0 des sanctions. De 1918 \u00e0 1995, cette compagnie de chemin de fer \u00e9tait une soci\u00e9t\u00e9 d'\u00c9tat et elle \u00e9tait beaucoup plus efficace. Que faire pour acheminer les biens dans ce pays? Faut-il en faire une soci\u00e9t\u00e9 d'\u00c9tat de nouveau?</p>"
    },
    "url": "/debates/2018/5/3/elizabeth-may-8/",
    "politician_url": "/politicians/elizabeth-may/",
    "politician_membership_url": "/politicians/memberships/4108/",
    "procedural": false,
    "source_id": "10108543",
    "h1": {
        "en": "Adjournment Proceedings",
        "fr": "Motion D'Ajournement"
    },
    "h2": {
        "en": "Rail Transportation",
        "fr": ""
    },
    "document_url": "/debates/2018/5/3/",
    "related": {
        "document_speeches_url": "/speeches/?document=%2Fdebates%2F2018%2F5%2F3%2F"
    }
}