In Canada, what is divided by geography is united by transportation

Synonymous with safety, efficiency and competitiveness, Canada’s transportation network is why international businesses such as Cosmair Canada, Stora Forest Industries and Honda Canada are increasingly choosing Canada as a location for their operations.   And why not?

A winning combination of world-class transportation infrastructure, integrated transportation services with North America and the world, seamless intermodal links, innovative transportation technology, competitive rates and services, and a strong commitment to safety and sustainability, Canada’s transportation system connects Canadians to each other and the rest of the world.

Canada has one of the most modern and highly developed transportation infrastructures in the world. In fact, according to the World Economic forum’s 1997 Global Competitiveness Report, Canada’s transportation infrastructure is ranked first among G-7 countries.

This ranking, based on the extent to which a country’s transportation infrastructure meets the requirements of an internationally competitive business, measures the adequacy of roads, railroads, air transport and port access. This achievement is truly remarkable given the sheer size of Canada’s landmass and its challenging landscape.

By sea

Canada is a maritime nation with access to three oceans, the Pacific, the Atlantic and the Arctic, and to the world’s longest inland waterway open to ocean shipping, the Great Lakes/St. Lawrence Seaway System. In addition, 300 commercial ports and harbours handle many goods shipped in and through Canada.

Vancouver is Canada’s largest port and the main terminal for goods being shipped to the Asia-Pacific region. The Port of Prince Rupert is located just below the Alaskan Panhandle and boasts the shortest sailing distance from North America to Pacific Rim countries. In the east, shipments are divided among several ports, including Montreal, Halifax, Port Cartier, Sept Iles/Pointe Noire, Saint John and Quebec.

Despite the cold climate in winter, many of Canada’s deep-water ports are open year round. Modern container facilities at major ports, such as Halifax, Montreal and Vancouver, connect with inland container trains to ensure rapid movement of goods throughout North America. The Port of Montreal is Canada’s leading container port because of its inland location, as well as its rail and road links to major markets in central Canada and the US northeast and mid-west.

The St. Lawrence Seaway, a marine highway as long as the Atlantic Ocean is wide, handles some 200 million tonnes of cargo each year, with over 100 million tonnes passing through ports along the St. Lawrence River. Vital to Canada’s international competitiveness, the Seaway provides a direct route to the industrial heart of North America.

By air

Canada has a highly developed air transportation system that includes 10 major international airports over 300 smaller airports. Canada’s two main airline carriers, Air Canada and Canadian Airlines International, have comprehensive domestic and international route networks and affiliation with smaller regional carriers that link all parts of the country to transcontinental and international route systems. In addition, both airlines have strategic alliances with the world’s major carriers allowing easy connection to the rest of the world.

By road

Canada has more than 900,000 kilometres of public roads. The 7,300-kilometre Trans Canada Highway is the country’s major east-west route, linking all 10 provinces. The road network includes a large number of crossing points with the US, 18 of which are major trade gateways.

In recent years, the increase in truck traffic generated by the growth in Canada-US trade and just-in-time manufacturing have placed added demands on the road system and have focused greater attention on road safety, including the quality of infrastructure. As a result, Canada invests a large amount of money on road maintenance and upgrades.

More and more, infrastructure upgrades are the result of public-private partnerships that make the most of private-sector technological and operational expertise. A case in point is the Confederation Bridge between the provinces of Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick, the world’s longest continuous marine-span bridge over ice-covered water.

By rail

Railways are the backbone of Canada’s transportation system, providing the most economical method of moving containers and bulk commodities over great distances. Canadian railways move some 270 million tonnes of freight annually.

Like the air industry, Canada’s rail industry is dominated by two major players: Canadian National Railways (CN) and Canadian Pacific Railways (CP). CN and CP have strong domestic networks, significant links into the US, including ownership of several US rail lines, and a growing number of regional railway affiliates from which to serve North American markets. They also have easy access to Canada’s major ports and to interior communities, either directly or indirectly, through truck-rail intermodal service.

Along with these excellent intermodal connections, both CN and CP have extensive alliances with their US counterparts and have purchased major US railways extending their infrastructure throughout the continent.

Superior integration

With a billion dollars in trade crossing the Canada-US border everyday by sea, air, road and rail, the integration of north-south transportation linkages has always been important to Canadians. It’s become even more so with the advent of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Open Skies bilateral air agreement, and with their corresponding increases in cross-border traffic.  With the Open Skies agreement, direct flights to the US from the 8 major canadian airports have increase significantly: Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal (Dorval & Mirabel) and Halifax.

Canada’s truck, air and rail services are fully integrated with US networks, providing efficient access to consumers and suppliers throughout North America, an attractive advantage for businesses wanting to move goods internationally.

Every year, there are roughly ten million truck trips across the Canada-US border, with the value of goods carried totaling approximately $400 billion. This makes road transport the dominant mode of north-south transportation.

As a result, Canada, the United States and Mexico are taking measures to integrate border crossing regulations and improve procedures to streamline the movement of people and goods at border crossings.

Increasingly, Canada Customs is equipped with automated systems that combine electronic data interchange and bar-coding technology to speed up clearance at the border. They also have a program that allows regular shippers to arrange pre-clearance for their goods.

In the air industry, Canadian and US carriers have unlimited access to fly between any cities in both countries. Canada also has bilateral air agreements with 66 foreign countries. Twenty-five US carriers and 47 major foreign air carriers are licensed to provide scheduled services to and from Canada.

In addition, Canada’s two major airlines, Air Canada and Canadian Airlines International, are part of strategic alliances with a number of major foreign carriers, which make flights between Canada, the US and the rest of the world easily accessible, for business or pleasure. Frequent departures and short transit times make it possible for same-day return trips to major North American destinations and next-day return trips for many foreign destinations.

New air cargo policies have created opportunities for Canadian air carriers to operate international scheduled or all-cargo charter services. Winnport, located on the grounds of the Winnipeg International Airport, is a recently opened multi-modal distribution centre and North American gateway for international air cargo. The facility is a one-stop shop that offers a Foreign Trade Zone where value-added assembly, customs brokerage, warehousing and distribution operations take place.

Canada’s two competitive railways CN and CP, offer rail services on a national scale, including intermodal services, to shippers and receivers from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific, with excellent access to the rest of the continent. They have also purchased US rail lines and established extensive alliances with US rail companies.

At the same time, the virtually seamless rail-freight shipping service available throughout North America has sparked a growing interest from truck carriers, who are entering into partnerships to take advantage of the efficiencies that can be achieved through integrated systems.

Seamless intermodal services

An efficient and reliable transportation system includes the smooth transition of goods between transportation modes. In Canada, intermodal transport services offer fast and efficient delivery to a large number of destinations. Investment in infrastructure and advancements in technology by all modes of transportation have taken intermodal service in Canada to a new level.

Canadian railroads have made major investments to allow for modern, efficient rail container transportation and to develop new technologies to ensure their competitiveness and to improve service. Both CN and CP have simplified the loading/unloading process and are using smaller, decentralized terminals that are less congested and make intermodal transfers more attractive. The railways have also introduced double-stack container service in and out of Canada’s three major container ports in Halifax, Montreal and Vancouver, which means big cost savings over conventional container trains.

On Canada’s West Coast, Deltaport offers excellent intermodal services. This container facility is one of the most advanced terminals of its kind and is a major transportation gateway to the rest of North America. State-of-the-art technology, computerized systems for intermodal operation, and direct access to two transcontinental railways have combined to double the Port of Vancouver’s container capacity.

Containerized shipping is not the only transportation industry to benefit from innovation and advanced technology. Canada is making the most of recent research into intelligent transportation systems (ITS), which incorporate advanced navigation, route guidance, communication, sensor and computer technologies. Canada is applying ITS to a broad range of transportation systems to improve accessibility, sustainability, productivity and safety.

Automatic Vehicle Identification (AVI) technology, which speeds the movement of truck traffic across borders, is one example of how ITS is being applied. Canada, the United States and Mexico have a pilot project underway to test the feasibility of AVI technology by allowing trucks specially equipped with transponders to pass through border crossings without stopping.

This means that in the near future, only trucks that don’t meet pre-clearance requirements, and those chosen for random inspection, will be required to stop for inspection at borders. The time savings will make a significant difference to shippers, especially those hauling perishable goods.

To complement this effort, Canada is also working to ensure that a common technology for automated border crossings is used so that transponders purchased by truckers or motorists can be used in all parts of Canada and across North America.

Potentially, this same technology could also be used to monitor traffic or weight violations. In fact, these applications are part of future plans for the recently opened Highway 407 located north of Toronto.

In addition, technological advancements in the rail industry such as computer-aided dispatching and automatic train control systems have reduced costs and improved delivery time.

Each of these priority areas, infrastructure, integration, intermodalism and innovation, which are the four "I’s" of Canada’s transportation competitiveness, have resulted in a transportation system that is more efficient and more responsive to market forces. Deregulation, commercialization and privatization have also combined to sweeten the pot. That’s good news for business.

Over the past decade, the federal government has introduced major reforms to Canada’s transportation system, which has encouraged commercialization of the transportation industry and removed unnecessary government regulations.

In many cases, these reforms have created new competition in the supply of services and stimulated free-market forces by privatizing many government enterprises in the transportation sector. Competition among carriers has become much stronger. Their very survival depends upon it.

Canada’s air navigation system is now operated by a private, not-for-profit company, and the Canadian portion of the St. Lawrence Seaway system is in the hands of a user group. Both systems are better able to tailor levels of service to the needs of users.

In addition, Canada’s airports have been put under local control for greater responsiveness and economic autonomy, while new port authorities are also being created, with the same excellent results expected.

Thanks to global competition in the airline industry and, more specifically, the Open Skies agreement between Canada and the United States, business can capitalize on Canada’s highly competitive air passenger and cargo rates. Deregulation of Canada’s domestic air services has led to increased competition in the marketplace, the emergence of low-cost carriers and the growth of scheduled charter carriers.

Freight tonnage carried every year on Canadian highways is estimated to be close to 400 million tonnes while the total value of cross-border truck traffic makes up nearly 70 percent of all Canada-US trade. As trucking companies compete for this growing domestic and international business, shippers are reaping the benefits of increased choice and better rates.

Competition is also intense in the rail sector. In response, Canada’s two major railways have formed partnerships and alliances, and invested in new locomotives, rail cars and rail infrastructure to improve efficiency and service. The result is a high-density, low-cost rail network that is linked with well-managed shortline and regional railways. Alliances among Canadian and US railways, and with major trucking firms have also increased the rail industry’s capability to transport freight throughout the continent.

As a result of deregulation, commercialization and privatization, the role of the federal government of Canada is now focused on policies that contribute to a healthy, competitive business environment and a safe and sustainable transportation system.

Sustainable development means meeting the needs of the present without compromising the needs of future generations. In Canada, sustainable development is a government-wide commitment, and climate change is one of the current priorities.

In 1997, Canada and several other countries met in Kyoto, Japan, to review progress on the Rio Convention on Climate Change and to negotiate stronger greenhouse gas emission reduction targets for the year 2000 and beyond.

Transportation, which accounts for more than a quarter of Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions, will be an important component of Canada’s long-term, multi-faceted climate-change strategy. The federal government is considering options for more sustainable transportation and working with industry to develop improved vehicle technologies and alternative transportation fuels.

Public safety is another of the federal government’s priorities. In fact, when it comes to transportation, safety is of the utmost importance in government priorities, and the commitment shows. Canada’s transportation system is one of the safest in the world, and we put our expertise to work by taking an active role in international efforts to harmonize safety standards.

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