Canada’s Transport Minister says, ‘The Prairies are powering the world, but none of that matters if goods can’t be moved efficiently, reliably, or affordably.’
Steven Mackinnon spoke at a Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce event in Saskatoon Friday morning.
MacKinnon says Canada, and Saskatchewan, have everything the world needs, but those commodities are only as good as the transport infrastructure that surrounds them, and Canada’s could use some work. “In many cases we have some aging or some inadequate infrastructure,” he explains.
To tackle this, MacKinnon says the government plans to invest over $6 billion in the ‘Trade Diversification Corridors’ and ‘Arctic Infrastructure’ funds over the next seven years.
“This will allow us to build and modernize trade-enabling transportation infrastructure across the country, including the Prairie’s port, which is the Port of Vancouver.”
The Government has also published three consultation documents that could lead to new legislation.
“One to do with the Canada Labour Code, one to do with permitting and how we get projects built more quickly…and the third has to do with supply chains.”
Mackinnon says Prime Minister Carney has set out a goal of doubling non-U.S. exports within the next decade, and it cannot be achieved without aggressive expansions and enhancements of rail, ports, roads, airports, and the labourers that make it all happen.
He says as Canada looks to diversity trade away from the United States and improve its own export infrastructure, we’re going to need all hands on deck.
“For example, with the Port of Vancocuver. Premier Moe sent me a letter saying ‘Hey, we send a lot of stuff through that port. Why doesn’t someone from Saskatchewan sit on the board of that?’ We’ll, we’re going to do that.”
More than the physical repair of aging and inadequate infrastructure, he says Ottawa will also get to work on the elimination of red tape, skilled labour procurement, and ensuring supply chain reliability. Ottawa will also work to improve Canada’s trade document digitization to fast-track the process at the ports, as MacKinnon says that is something Canada falls significantly behind in.
The Saskatchewan Opposition spoke to reporters after the event, drawing parallels between Canada’s trade and export plan and the NDP’s own call for enhanced rail lines, powerlines, and pipelines.
