Thank you Michael for that generous introduction. In turn, I
would like to congratulate the Shipping Federation of Canada
on its 100th birthday and to salute you, Richard LeHir and
your colleagues for organizing this very topical Centennial
Conference “Building Canada’s Maritime Future”. I cannot
think of a more appropriate way for you to mark the
Federation’s first century of accomplishment as the
pre-eminent voice for ocean ships engaged in Canada’s
international trade.
I consider it an honour and a privilege to have been invited
to moderate this Round Table on “World Shipping Trends and
Their Impact on Canada” and to be sitting here with such
distinguished representatives of the international shipping
industry... an industry which I love and one in which my
father Mel played a significant role here in Canada.
Canada, as most of us know, has a very proud history as a
shipping nation, both on the high seas and in the St.
Lawrence/Great Lakes system. As the Shipping Federation’s
mission has concentrated primarily on deep sea shipping, the
principle focus of my opening remarks and of this Round Table
will be International Deep Sea Shipping.
Canada built very significant fleets of ocean-going tonnage
during both the Great Wars, but the first and proudest
Canadian Merchant Marine, and the only one not born of
emergency, was a fleet of 7,000 wooden vessels which made
Canada during the 19th century, the 4th
largest shipping nation in the world. That was the exciting
and romantic era of “Wooden ships and Iron Men”.
Canada’s fleet of wooden vessels began to disintegrate during
the 1800's with the advent of the steel ship. A long quiet
period followed until Canada once again became a major player
on the high seas when World War I necessitated the urgent
construction in Canada of a proud new fleet. These WWI-built
vessels operated during the 1920's, but with the Great
Depression of the thirties and extremely low freight rates,
they too were abandoned. After another brief period of
inactivity, the outbreak of World War II in 1939 precipitated
the building of a vast new Canadian fleet of steel deep sea
ships. With this merchant fleet, all under Canadian Flag,
Canada was once again a major international shipping power.
By 1946 our nation had some 785 deep-sea cargo vessels on its
register. Between 1946 and 1966, there was a gradual
disappearance of these ships from the Canadian register.
Since about 1970, Canada has been without its own ocean-going
merchant fleet and we have depended on vessels flying the
flags of other nations for the carriage of our international
import and export trade.
Many Canadians today have never seen an ocean-going merchant
ship flying a Canadian flag, even though they may have spent
their lives in or near one of our major seaports. Their
experience with Canadian-registered sea-going vessels will
have been confined to the proud ships of our Navy, Coast Guard
vessels, sea-going tugs and supply vessels and other
specialized carriers.
Meantime, during the post-war years and notwithstanding the
construction of the St. Lawrence Seaway in 1959, our inland
(St. Lawrence Seaway and Great Lakes) shipping industry has
remained active and has continued to flourish over the years,
although it is in a rather reduced, unfortunate and possibly
distressed mode today.
The interesting thing, Ladies and Gentlemen, is that despite
the lack of a Canadian flag deep-sea fleet, we do in fact have
a very significant international shipping industry owned and
operated by skilled and creative Canadian entrepreneurs and
supported by a vast maritime infrastructure including ports,
terminals, pilotage authorities, ship chandlers and other
suppliers, ship agencies, skilled labour, marine insurance and
financial markets, a distribution network highlighted by
Canada’s strong rail and trucking industries and yes -- even a
plethora of maritime lawyers. Indeed, International Shipping
and its dependencies are a very significant part of Canada’s
modern economy. And many Canadians have sought and made their
fortunes in this industry. And yet in the minds of the vast
number of Canadians there is in fact no Canadian shipping
industry either international or domestic. My first
questions to my fellow panellists and to you in the audience
therefore are: Why is this? -- Does it matter and if so,
what should we do about it?
The reality is that international shipping has changed
substantially during the last several decades in all major
shipping nations ... not just in Canada. I hasten to add,
however, that it has not changed so much that it is no longer
one of the truly last bastions of free enterprise
characterized by high risk and costly moveable capital assets
and commensurately high rewards, when the cycles are right!!
Several fundamental new paradigms were introduced into
international shipping markets and the movement of goods and
commodities in international trade with the advent of
containerization, large high-tech vessels and other
technological advances such as GPS navigation, electronic
charts and other developments which helped to reduce and
manage many of the risks inherent in international shipping.
As with most other elements of the globalized economy a new
globalized marine world has evolved for international
shipping. As a segway to our panellists’ discussion on “World
Shipping Trends and Their Impact on Canada Today”, I thought
it appropriate to pose the following questions in a rhetorical
fashion in hopes the answers will become apparent during our
panellists’ presentations and in the question and answer
period which I am confident will follow. The questions are:
