Slide 1 NATIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE AND MARKET ACCESS: THE CANADIAN NORTHERN CORRIDOR CONCEPT DR. KENT FELLOWS RESEARCH ASSOCIATE, ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY RESEARCH DIVISION THE SCHOOL OF PUBLIC POLICY E: GKFELLOW@UCALGARY.CA TWITTER: @GK_FELLOWS
Slide 2 THE POLICY PROBLEM • Canada faces policy fragmentation in developing new infrastructure • Consequences of this policy environment: • Lost investment, economic activity and government revenues • Our recent research estimates annual gains of $6.5 billion from improving transportation infrastructure in the territories alone • Increased attention from the public has led to an erosion of confidence in established procedures and processes • Congestion in existing transportation corridors, limiting internal and external trade • Transportation of dangerous goods through population centres
Slide 3 CANADIAN HISTORY IS PUNCTUATED BY BOLD NATIONAL PROJECTS • The Canadian Pacific Railway(1872-1884) • The TransCanada Highway System (1950-1971) • The St. Lawrence Seaway (1954-1959) These projects have facilitated economic and social development within their respective regions.
Slide 4 “Here is a country of only three and a half million people, not yet four years old, pledged to construct the greatest of all railways.” * -Pierre Berton 1974 (Writing about Canada as it existed in 1872.)
Slide 5 CANADIAN NORTHERN CORRIDOR: THE CONCEPT • The establishment of permissible corridors: multi-modal rights-of-way through Canada’s north and near -north with an accompanying regulatory and governance structure. • A solution to geographic, political and economic challenges, providing growth and diversification • Access to rapidly expanding international markets • Reduces interregional trade barriers • Enhances Indigenous and northern development opportunities • Supports northern security objectives. • Detailed and extensive studies to address the physical, financial, public policy and governance dimensions as well as strategic implications and the socio-economic and environmental impacts
Slide 6 CANADIAN NORTHERN CORRIDOR: THE CONCEPT • What Infrastructure? • Electrical and other utilities • Telecommunications • Rail • Road • Pipelines • Future Proofing (to the extent possible)
Slide 7 POTENTIAL ROUTING Approximately 7000 km in length. • Generally following the boreal forest in the Northwest • Southeast from the Churchill area to northern Ontario and the “Ring of Fire” area. • Across Northern Quebec to Labrador, with augmented ports. This routing will allow Canadian Communities access to inter- regional and international markets. • For both export and import, enhancing the benefits of trade.
Slide 8 DEFINING A PAN-CANADIAN NORTHERN CORRIDOR • A defined right of way to facilitate infrastructure development. • A multi-modal (road, rail, electrical, communications etc.) transportation right-of-way supporting development objectives. • A defined right of way to facilitate infrastructure development. • To improve transportation: • Between regions within Canada and • Between land locked regions and Canada’s existing and alternative international trading partners. • To support economic development and job creation
Slide 9 WHY PURSUE THE CORRIDOR CONCEPT? Compared to the current piecemeal, non-integrated approach the Corridor would: • Be closer to the location of known resources and would facilitate new exploration and development • Create economies of scale and scope through multi-modal bundling • Minimize the overall environmental footprint • Ease congestion on southern infrastructure and promote overall system rationalization • Enhance safety and security
Slide 10 WHY PURSUE THE CORRIDOR CONCEPT? • The corridor concept supports northern and Indigenous economic and social development goals • Reducing the cost of living in northern Canada • Improving quality of life for individuals in this region. • Attracting investment to the region to supports improved infrastructure, economic development opportunities and job creation. • An historic opportunity to fully associate Indigenous Peoples with the benefits of developing Mid-Canada, Northern and Arctic resources • Affirming Indigenous Peoples’ traditional stewardship of the land and the environment.
Slide 11 THE CANADIAN NORTHERN CORRIDOR: WHY NOW? • Canadian infrastructure development faces fragmentation and paralysis: • Erosion of trust in public institutions • This has resulted in huge lost opportunities and revenues. • Renewed Government of Canada focus on infrastructure • The governments of Northwest Territories, Yukon and Nunavut are prioritizing infrastructure corridors. • The GNWT’s 25-year Transportation Strategy identifies the development of three new corridors. • The concept supports the Federal Government’s regulatory reform agenda, • Regulation of transportation and infrastructure, • Motivating regulatory certainty and de-risking the regulatory process for infrastructure investment, • Preparing the way for privately-funded and economically driven projects.
Slide 12 THE CANADIAN NORTHERN CORRIDOR: WHY NOW? • There is a renewed Government of Canada focus on infrastructure: • The Government of Canada acknowledges its responsibility to ensure significant new investments in key strategic infrastructure that will increase trade and economic growth; • Budget 2017 allocated $2.1 billion to the Trade and Transportation Corridor Initiative, to contribute to achieving the Transportation 2030 objectives of modernizing transportation infrastructure; and • Budget 2018 devoted $618 million to the National Trade Corridors Fund over five years to strengthen the efficiency and reliability of national trade corridors.
Slide 13 THE PRECEDENT FOR MULTI-MODAL CORRIDORS • Similar but distinct from Mid-Canada Corridor proposed by Richard Rohmer in 1970. • International Examples • Pilbara, Australia Corridor • The Scandinavian-Mediterranean corridor • The Kenyan Lamu Port-Southern Sudan-Ethiopia Transport Corridor (LAPSSET) • Callide infrastructure corridor in Australia • A Canadian example: The Slave Geological Province Access Corridor, promoted by the governments of Northwest Territories and Nunavut, is under development.
Slide 14 ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS OF A NORTHERN CORRIDOR • Mitigate environmental risks through monitoring and surveillance within a contained footprint • Reduce the emissions intensity of transportation in Canada’s north and near -north. • Poor road conditions (like those in Canada’s north) have been estimated to increase fuel consumption by up to 50% with an implied increase in vehicle emissions per mile. * * Michaelis, Laurie, et al. "Mitigation options in the transportation sector. "Climate Change 1995: Impacts, Adaptations and Mitigation of Climate Change: Scientific- Technical Analyses (1996): 679-712.
Slide 15 THE CANADIAN NORTHERN CORRIDOR: WHY NOW? • Canada’s competitiveness is declining: • Deterioration of Canada’s international investment position • Canadian investment abroad has outgrown foreign investment in Canada. • The corridor concept offers a coordinated and integrated plan to invest in national transportation infrastructure to reverse this decline. Source: CANSIM 376-0051. International investment position, Canadian direct investment abroad and foreign direct investment in Canada, by country.
Slide 16 WHY THE SCHOOL OF PUBLIC POLICY? • Canada’s leading policy school • Independent, peer-reviewed research based on hard data • Broad network of academic researchers and policy practitioners across Canada • Most cited policy school, within both traditional media and academic publications • Influence: wide dissemination among policy makers, business leaders, and the media • Existing partnerships to support the Canadian Northern Corridor program • Centre for Interuniversity Research and Analysis of Organizations (CIRANO; comprises several Montreal-based universities) • Government of NWT • Denendeh Investments • University of Calgary • Endorsement by the Senate of Canada and Transport Canada
Slide 17 RESPONSE FROM THE SENATE A Quote from Senator David Tkachuck (chair of the Senate Standing Committee on Banking, Trade and Commerce) : “Not since Sir John A. Macdonald’s National Policy in the 1870s has Canada had such an opportunity to build such a monumental infrastructure project with the potential to transform the country’s economy. ”
Slide 18 RESPONSE FROM THE SENATE The Senate of Canada (2017) report on the corridor concept also states: “ In the committee’s opinion, the development of an east-west corridor through Canada’s North and near-North would unlock significant economic opportunities for our country. A national, large- scale project that would transform Canada’s transportation infrastructure would enable the federal government to address a range of pressing issues with Canada’s transportation systems, and to articulate a vision for the country’s long-term development. The federal government must seize this opportunity. ”
Recommend
More recommend
