Thank you very much.

I just wanted to respond briefly to some things that were said. I've heard from both the Bloc and the Liberals. One said we shouldn't study this more in depth because public safety is already dealing with it and another said that a motion expressing concern isn't a fulsome study. I think we're hearing both ways. We're planning to do either too much work or not enough work.

What this motion does is recognize that there is work happening at the public safety committee. It also recognizes the importance of the transport committee weighing in because of the involvement of federal ports. The port of Montreal is the major highway for stolen vehicles. They are stolen in the GTA, the greater Montreal area and all over southern Ontario, put on railcars and shipped to the port of Montreal, where they are exported by organized crime. The idea that the transport committee shouldn't have anything to say about that....

I do have another motion for another time that does call for a more comprehensive study on the port component of this. However, today we're asking simply to take note, raise our concern and report that to the House.

The fact is that 1% of containers going through the port of Montreal are inspected due to a lack of resources. I think we can do this in a way that is respectful of the time in this committee and simply express our concern with that. That's what we're asking for.

I recognize that some people don't want to address this issue or don't want the transport committee...which is responsible for ports and for railways, which are a key component of how these vehicles are moved once they are stolen. They aren't being driven to the port of Montreal. These are using federally regulated assets to move the proceeds of crime.

I think that the idea that the transport committee doesn't have a role to play and that we shouldn't be pronouncing on this is absurd. This simply calls for us to report our concern and call on the government to address the resource shortages that are happening. It's a very simple motion that will allow us to express our concern with what is happening at the port of Montreal. I think this is the best way we can do that right away to say that we've heard the reports.... I don't think anyone is disputing that the port of Montreal is a key transportation hub for stolen vehicles. I haven't heard anyone dispute that.

We can bring forward our concern, note it to the government and indicate that we, as a committee, believe that there are inadequate resources for CBSA at the port of Montreal. We express that concern and then it's up to the government to respond. It's up to the government to note that concern and have a formal response.

I think we're doing our job as members of Parliament. We're doing our job as members of this committee to express concern when things like the ports and the railways are being used to funnel stolen vehicles out of the country to the benefit of organized crime.

Pronouncing on that by way of this motion is the best way to do that. I don't see any reason why anyone would vote against that unless they don't believe there are resource shortages, don't believe that CBSA has a role to play in this, or don't believe that our ports and our railways are an important part of this that needs to be addressed.

Conservatives believe that we need to address the issue of the port of Montreal being that conduit for organized crime to get the vehicles that they steal in this country out of the country. If we're not going to address that as a committee, we would be failing in our duty to Canadians. Let's vote in favour of this, express our concern to the House and move on with it.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mark Strahl

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