The Regular Monthly Meeting will be held in the Hiring Hall on Tuesday, October 18, 2011 at 7:00 pm.

The agenda for the meeting will consist of:

• Minutes
• Regular Business
• Financial Statements
• New Business No Later Than 9:30 pm.

By LEE-ANNE GOODMAN: The Canadian Press
The Halifax Herald: October 6, 2011

WASHINGTON — A U.S. federal agency is launching an inquiry into whether Canadian ports on the West Coast are luring lucractive cargo business away from their American counterparts in yet another growing Canada-U.S. trade dispute.

The five-member Federal Maritime Commission entered the fray on Wednesday, voting unanimously to hold the inquiry following complaints from American ports that Canada is unfairly subsidizing the diversion of cargo ships away from its U.S. competitors, particularly in Prince Rupert, B.C.

The agency will deliver its findings to U.S. Congress after it completes the inquiry amid concerns that American lawmakers are mulling over a US$143-per-container levy on cargo entering the United States from B.C. ports.

“Canadian and Mexican ports are free to compete with U.S. ports for U.S. cargo, but they should do so on a playing field that is not artificially tilted by governments’ policies,” Richard Lidinsky, chairman of the commission, told the hearing on Wednesday.

It’s another bit of alarming news on the Canada-U.S. trade front.

Protectionist Buy American provisions have been resurrected in U.S. President Barack Obama’s job legislation even as Canada and the U.S. prepare to officially announce a sweeping agreement on border co-operation that will see Canada spend $1 billion for new border facilities and programs.

At issue is the growing popularity of Prince Rupert, a $170 million port that opened four years ago with $60 million in subsidies from both the B.C. and federal governments.

Cargo ships travelling from China arrive several days earlier at Prince Rupert and Vancouver than they do to at U.S. ports on the West Coast. That’s especially true of the port of Los Angeles after ships travel what’s known as a circular route across the Pacific Ocean and end up far closer to the Canadian destinations.

American ports also charge companies the Harbor Maintenance Tax that covers the cost of dredging port channels. Canadian ports don’t charge cargo ships a harbour tax.

“So let’s say I’m Walmart — my ship gets unloaded in Prince Rupert and my cargo immediately gets put onto a train to Chicago,” says Peter Tirschwell of the Journal of Commerce, a trade publication that’s been closely following the dispute.

“So the pitch from Prince Rupert is, ’Look, your cargo is going to get to Chicago faster than if it went to L.A., and you don’t have to pay this tax.’ For a big retailer, that’s pretty attractive. But from the perspective of American ports, Prince Rupert is taking cargo away from them.”

Two senators from Washington state, Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, urged the Federal Maritime Commission to launch the inquiry.

Eight members of the House of Representatives made a similar plea last week, as did a Democratic lawmaker from California.

In their letter to the commission, Murray and Cantwell point out that the Harbor Maintenance Tax is not collected at border crossings when cargo enters the U.S. on trains from Canada, suggesting it should be.

“As a consequence, our country’s capacity to handle international trade growth is adversely affected,” the letter read.

“It is imperative that we level the playing field between international ports and domestic ports so that the U.S. can continue to compete for cargo.”

Canadian opponents says that could amount to a punishing tariff on every container entering the U.S. from B.C. ports.

The Canadian Chamber of Commerce is dismissing the U.S. complaints, calling them part of an American debate about taxation that has nothing do with Canada.

A Special No Work Day Meeting will be held in the Hiring Hall on Thursday, October 13, 2011 at 8:30 am.

The agenda for the meeting will consist of:

• Nominations and Election of Negotiating Committee
• Contract Proposals

By DAVID JACKSON (djackson@herald.ca)
Provincial Reporter – The Halifax Herald: September 30, 2011

The rail line in Cape Breton needs to be available in case future port developments in Sydney and the Strait of Canso create new traffic, says Economic and Rural Development Minister Percy Paris.

Paris talked about the potential Thursday as he said the province continues negotiations with Cape Breton and Central Nova Scotia Railway to extend a $2-million-per-year provincial subsidy.

“Cape Breton Rail is probably considered as very vital to the future of Cape Breton,” Paris said after a cabinet meeting.
“We want to make sure that we do not create any . . . problems for that particular region.”

Sydney Harbour will be dredged this fall in hopes of developing the port. Melford International Terminal plans a $350-million container terminal in Guysborough County on the Strait of Canso.

A provincial subsidy for the Cape Breton portion of the line runs out today, although the company has access to $500,000 in “transition funding” while negotiations continue on a further subsidy.

The subsidy covers the Cape Breton portion of the line. The entire line runs from Truro to Sydney.

Paris said the line in Cape Breton hasn’t seen any new traffic in the last year. In announcing a subsidy last year, the province said the line needed 10,000 railcar transports to break even, but in 2009 the number was 1,500.

The closure of the NewPage pulp mill in Point Tupper this month took about 25 cars a day off the line, but Paris said the mill’s closure doesn’t have an impact on the Cape Breton portion of the line.

He said he’d be “surprised and shocked” if the railway, owned by Florida-based Rail-America, settled for less than the annual $2-million subsidy it’s received since 2005.

Paris said maintenance on bridges and other parts of the line in Cape Breton are part of the negotiation.

Agents at the Port of Halifax did a random check earlier this month of a shipping container that arrived directly from Cartagena carrying cans labelled as beans.

Using an x-ray machine, they noticed a large portion of the cans had a different density and went in for a closer look, Dominic Mallette, the agency’s Nova Scotia chief of operations, said in an interview.

The agents discovered 32 kilograms of cocaine — worth about $4 million — stuffed into 122 cans. The bags of cocaine were surrounded by sand to give the cans, which had false bottoms, added weight.

After the Sept. 1 discovery, the agency contacted RCMP. The Mounties seized the drugs and border services agents repacked the shipment with other material and sent it along as if interception had not occurred, Mallette said.

The container was destined for an unidentified food distribution company in Saint-Jerome, Quebec.

RCMP followed the container to a warehouse in Lachine, Quebec, where they arrested two men on Sept. 15.

Luis Carlos Moreno, 48, and Julian Andrey Mazuera, 32, are each charged with conspiracy to import cocaine and and possession for the purpose of trafficking.

RCMP said in a news release that Moreno was a shareholder of the food distribution company that was expecting the shipment.

The men are being held in custody and are expected to appear in a Quebec court on Oct. 7 for a bail hearing.

The Port of Halifax plays a vital role in the import and export of agricultural products. It helps meet the demand of local consumers and serves as an exit point for Canadian products destined for international markets.

Patrick Bohan, the Halifax Port Authority’s manager of business development, said the port handles several thousand tonnes of agricultural products annually. It is a cargo sector with excellent growth potential for the port, he said. For example, volumes of non-containerized export grain reached 83,422 tonnes in the first half of 2011, up 20.7 per cent over the first six months of last year.

The port handles other agricultural products including potatoes – both frozen and bagged, frozen wild blueberries, and frozen pork and chicken. But the port wants to increase traffic in this sector. It has set its sights on pulse products from the west that it wants to move to strategic markets around the world.

Last year, the authority, along with port stakeholders, carried out a pilot project to move product from the Prairies, and it is planning a similar initiative this fall. The new project will move things a step further. “We will work on lining containers and eventually get into bagging and other value-added items,” Mr. Bohan said.

“We will deal with peas, beans and lentils from Western Canada, and we mean to prove we can get product out of the West into some select overseas markets faster than any other alternative.

“We are breaking into it starting from zero and trying to get a piece of the overall market. Even if we get a small market share, it could easily be 10,000 containers a year.”

Mr. Bohan said the port is taking a serious look at agri-products because of their increasing importance to the world’s food trade. Loading pulse products and soybeans is just one part of the picture. A second is the port’s infrastructure, including 1,000 plugs to handle temperature-controlled cargo. A third is the strength of the carriers calling the port.

“(Halifax has) some of the last outbound services (and) that fits well with food products going out,” Mr. Bohan said, adding that carriers serving the port are quite capable of providing proper containers that at times are not so readily available at inland destinations.

Halifax Grain Elevator Ltd. is a prime example of a port facility that can handle agri-products, and the Maritime soybean industry can attest to that. Prince Edward Island is the major soybean producer in the region. It has shipped nearly 10,000 tonnes of beans by container to Southeast Asia and 10,000 tonnes in bulk to Europe over Halifax in the past year.

“That amount of soybean tonnage was something not expected, but I have to say it was a pleasant surprise,” said Jeff Brownlie of Halifax Grain Elevator. The facility handled about 3,000 tonnes of soybeans in containers a few years ago.

Mr. Brownlie said Halifax Grain Elevator and the port would like to expand the agri-products business. “Shipping local products by container is something that has room to grow, so we are trying to expand into number of different products,” he said.

On the import side, the grain elevator handles feed grain from Saskatchewan that arrives by rail, and feed corn from Ontario by vessel. Those products are used locally. The Dover Mills facility (Parrish & Heimbecker Ltd.), located next to the grain elevator, receives milling wheat by vessel from Thunder Bay.

Mr. Brownlie is optimistic that Halifax will continue to attract agri-products, especially with the development of a connection in the West.

Halifax Grain Elevator and the Halifax Port Authority have jointly invested more than $800,000 to upgrade the grain elevator facilities in anticipation of this new business.

Each year, the Halifax Longshoremen’s Association offers a $2,500 scholarship to a full or part-time student who is entering or continuing studies at Saint Mary’s University.  The recipient must be a member of Local 269 or a member’s immediate family.

The 2011 recipients of the ILA 269 Scholarships are Laykn Verge (pictured with David Cranston, ILA 269 President) and Stephanie Reid.  Laykn is attending the Nova Scotia College of Early Childhood Education and Stephanie is attending the School of Pharmacy at Dalhousie University.

If you would like more information or would like to apply for one of the ILA 269 Scholarships, please download the form here or contact info@ila269.ca for more information.

ILA Local 269 recently celebrated its 100th anniversary and looks to continue to promote the interests and improve the quality of life of its members and families.

Fraternally yours,

David Cranston
President, ILA 269