SPEAKING NOTES FOR
THE HONOURABLE LAWRENCE CANNON,
MINISTER OF TRANSPORT, INFRASTRUCTURE AND COMMUNITIES,
AT THE
7th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON SHORT AND MEDIUM SPAN BRIDGES 


MONTREAL, QUEBEC
AUGUST 24, 2006

Thank you for your introduction.

I am pleased to be here today and I would like to also extend a warm welcome to our international guests. I hope this forum gives you not only a chance to discuss ideas and exchange information, but to also explore and discover the City of Montreal, which is itself a bridge between the two official language communities that make up our country. For more than three centuries, Montreal has also been a bridge between the old continent and the new world.

Today, Montreal is a world-class city, which stands proudly at the vanguard of many cultural, social and technological trends. But we can never forget how much of Montreal’s success and strength is owed to the engineers and workers who built its bridges.

In fact, 15 bridges connect the Island of Montreal to mainland Canada. The city is also home to this country’s busiest bridge, the Champlain Bridge. This steel truss cantilever bridge is an engineering marvel that brings roughly 56 million cars and trucks across the St. Lawrence River and the St. Lawrence Seaway annually.

Bridges and tunnels are extremely important to all Canadians, as we are a nation with thousands of rivers to cross and mountains to traverse.

The need to overcome these distances was clear, even to the early explorers such as Samuel de Champlain, for whom this bridge is named. His explorations not only defined this country, but also – through the establishment of the fur trade – provided the first clear example of how important transportation would be to Canada’s economic success.

For 400 years, bridges and tunnels helped build this country.

They are just as important to Canada’s future.

Whether we’re talking about bridges made of ice, as they are in our northern regions, or the Confederation Bridge to our east – which, at roughly 13 kilometers in length, is the longest land bridge over ice-covered waters in the world – Canada’s bridges and tunnels play a vital role in this country’s transportation network.

Bridges are also a good way to illustrate the portfolio that I lead as the Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities. When I look up at a bridge, I see all three clearly represented.

First, a bridge is an actual, physical piece of infrastructure. Second, by simply being there, by allowing people or trade items to get from one area to another across the bridge, it is also integral to our transportation system and our economy. And third, bridges and tunnels help unite our cities and communities by connecting us to each other.

In this portfolio the Government of Canada is going one step further by also addressing issues such as environmental protection and security. It is almost impossible to deal with one of these issues – whether it’s transport, infrastructure, communities, the environment or safety and security – without talking about the others.

Security, as recent events have reminded us, has also become a fundamental preoccupation in all transportation matters.

Security of our transportation system also has a profound effect upon the other areas of the portfolio. It’s a good example of why the prime minister’s decision to create the portfolio in the first place was the right one.

Today, I am pleased to announce that Canada’s new government, through its crown corporation, the Jacques-Cartier and Champlain Bridges Incorporated has reached an agreement in principle with the Quebec Ministry of Transportation and the Kahnawake First Nation, to undertake a major retrofit of the Honoré-Mercier Bridge, which connects Ville LaSalle in Montreal with the Mohawk Reserve of Kahnawake. More than 28 million vehicles cross it each year, making it one of the region’s most important bridges.

Regular inspections on bridges we are responsible for have revealed that the bridge is in critical need of re-decking. Therefore, the retrofit is important.

Re-decking the bridge is vital to ensuring the ongoing safety of the users as well as prolonging the useful life of the structure. Because of the high volume of traffic that crosses the bridge, it’s important that the bridge remains open during construction.

The Jacques-Cartier and Champlain Bridges Incorporated will manage the entire project for both the federal and provincial governments. The project is also being structured to take into consideration the interests of all stakeholders involved, as well as users of the bridge.

That’s why the Government of Canada, the Province of Quebec and the Kahnawake First Nation community are working together to undertake this challenging project. It is an excellent example of cooperation between these three levels of government – one that reflects the concept of open federalism within the Canadian federation.

We also see this project as an opportunity to showcase the skills and expertise of our First Nations partners.

The Jacques-Cartier and Champlain Bridges Incorporated has experience in carrying out this type of work. In fact, their success in re-decking the Jacques-Cartier Bridge while keeping it open to traffic won them numerous awards – both domestic and international – in 2003.

We have also worked in the past with contractors from the Kahnawake First Nation and we look forward to continuing our work on this major project.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is a good example of how this government is working with other jurisdictions to achieve common objectives in many areas, including infrastructure, in keeping with the spirit of open federalism brought forth by Prime Minister Harper.

The results are showing.

In fact, this government has provided unprecedented funding specifically for infrastructure, as announced in the last budget.

Specifically, Budget 2006 provided for:

• a new Highways and Border Infrastructure Fund, to which $2.4 billion will be allocated over the next five years;
  
• an additional $2 billion for renewal of the Canada Strategic Infrastructure Fund to respond to large-scale priorities;
  
• $2.2 billion over the next five years to renew the Municipal Rural Infrastructure Fund, so as to respond to the needs of smaller municipalities; and
  
• $1.3 billion for public transit, in order to ease traffic congestion in urban areas, reduce carbon dioxide and improve the quality of the air and the quality of life in our cities.

In addition, the Budget backs those investments in public transit with $370 million in tax credits over two years for people who buy monthly passes. No other government has ever done as much to encourage public transit.

We are also maintaining the 100 per cent rebate on the Goods and Services Tax to support our cities and communities.

And we are maintaining the agreements on sharing of the federal excise tax on gasoline that cities and communities can invest in roads and bridges where they enhance sustainability.

In total, the measures announced in the Budget represent an unprecedented federal investment in infrastructure, totaling $16.5 billion over the next four years. We are very proud of this commitment, which is an indication of the importance the Prime Minister places on Canada’s cities and communities.

This demonstrates clearly that Canada’s new government recognizes that the economic success of our country rests on the strength of its communities which is, in turn, a function of modern infrastructure.

This funding will contribute to the economic vitality of Canadian communities by helping to ensure that goods can be transferred efficiently to markets, and that traffic congestion is reduced, contributing to an improved environment.

Additional investments to encourage the use of public transit will further help communities improve their quality of life.

Through major investments in public transit infrastructure and incentives to encourage its use, the Government of Canada is taking concrete actions to provide for a cleaner, healthier environment.

The security of our cities and communities is also a priority for this government. That is why the prime minister recently announced that the Government of Canada is also investing $254 million over two years to bolster air, rail, transit and marine security.

In addition, we are also making some important legislative changes.

Specifically, in April of this year, I tabled Bill C-3, the International Bridges and Tunnels Act. This Bill is currently before the Senate.

The reasons for introducing this bill were clear.

Responsibility for international bridges and tunnels falls within federal jurisdiction, but there is no clear legislative or regulatory authority to deal with these crossings.

In the past, each new international bridge or tunnel required a Special Act of Parliament. Not only did this bog down the legislative agenda, it led to inconsistencies in governance, and in the way we manage our oversight responsibilities.

Bill C-3 confirms federal jurisdiction, and permits us to establish guidelines for the approval of new bridges or tunnels. It gives us the power to set conditions for bridge maintenance and operation, including security – the importance of which I highlighted at the beginning of my remarks.

In the post-September 11 world, the federal government is taking very seriously the safety and security of its international border crossings – specifically, bridge and tunnel infrastructure – and this new legislation will give us the necessary tools to carry out this responsibility.

In other words: we are giving ourselves the powers and the levers to continue moving toward efficient, safe and secure border crossings.

After all, close to 76 per cent of the Canada-U.S. trade in 2005 carried by trucks was concentrated at six border crossing points – Windsor, Fort Erie, Sarnia and Lansdowne in Ontario, Lacolle in Quebec and Pacific Highway in British Columbia.

We need clear and effective authorities. That’s why we introduced this focused legislation – to get moving quickly on securing those authorities.

Ladies and gentlemen, this government knows the important role that your work has in Canada and around the world. Our bridges and tunnels are extremely important to our economy, our mode of transportation and our lives in general.

These bridges are not simply ways to get from one place to another and they should not be thought of as only being structures made of steel. Certainly, our bridges and tunnels bridge Canada’s geography, but they also connect us as a society.

And by helping to unify our economic competitiveness as a country, they are also bridges to our future.

Thank you.