Advocacy — Government Relations: Port Infrastructure

Transportation infrastructure has been identified as one of the most critical issues in Canada with respect to Canada's burgeoning trade. Since the introduction of the North American Free Trade Agreement 20 years ago, Canada's trade with the United States has doubled. The hot economies of China, India and South Korea have given rise to tremendous growth in trade. Trade with those countries with international trade projected to double and possibly triple by the year 2020. This growth will put pressures on all those in the transportation logistics chain from shipper to receiver. In the past year Canada's major container ports have experienced strong, double-digit growth in trade and that has put pressures on the movement of goods.

Canada's major ports handle a large volume of international trade and are directly in the middle of this activity. As such, Canada Port Authorities are mindful of the need to ensure that everything is done to ensure that nothing slows down the effective movement of goods. It is important for Canada to have the necessary capacity to ensure the free flow of trade continues via Canada's primary transportation corridors. To this end the Association has been working on a number of fronts to raise awareness of the need for sufficient port-related infrastructure, not only for international trade, but the important regional links for domestic trade via Canada's internal waterways on the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence Seaway.

The Association works in a number of forums to raise awareness of the need for a focus on infrastructure. The Association works with other transportation associations under the umbrella of the Transportation Optimization Pact (TOP) to raise the level of awareness and to provide a multi-modal focus. The Association also participates in a working group under the National Marine Industrial Council (NMIC), a joint industry-government forum comprised of nine industry representatives in the maritime sector and four Deputy Ministers (Transport, Industry, International Trade and Fisheries and Oceans). The NMIC Working Group is entitled, Competitiveness, Infrastructure and Strategic Vision. The focus of the working group is the movement of key commodities within key Canadian trade corridors. In addition, the Association has made an application to Infrastructure Canada for a comprehensive study of the state of marine-related infrastructure in Canada. The Association is also working on a number of other fronts to raise the overall awareness on this issue such as working with Transport Canada on its soon to be released, Federal Freight Strategy as it relates to capacity and the need for effective intermodal links.

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» Government of Canada Position Paper on a National Strategy for Critical Infrastructure Protection - June 10, 2005

» TD Bank Financial Group Study on the State of Canada's Infrastructure, May 20, 2004 [PDF]

» ACPA Presentation on Infrastructure Given an an International Conference on Transportation [PDF]