1 INTRODUCTION
The 2006 Annual Report presents the state of transportation in Canada
with the most current information available.
The Minister of Transport has a statutory responsibility to table in Parliament, each year, an annual report on the state of transportation in Canada. This responsibility derives from Section 52 of the Canada Transportation Act (1996):
"Each year the Minister of Transport shall, before the end of May, lay before Parliament a report briefly reviewing the state of transportation in Canada in respect of the preceding year, including:
- the financial viability of each mode of transportation and its contribution to the Canadian economy and the development of the regions;
- the extent to which carriers and modes of transportation were provided resources, facilities and services at public expenses;
- the extent to which carriers and modes of transportation received compensation, indirectly or directly, for the resources, facilities and services that were required to be provided as an imposed public duty; and
- any other transportation matters the Minister considers appropriate."
The 2006 Annual Report is the eleventh such report submitted by the Minister since the coming into force of the Canada Transportation Act. In producing this report, Transport Canada used the most current data and information available to present an overview of transportation in Canada. The most current data means the most recent year for which data were available, which was not always 2006. While the scope of the report goes beyond the federal transportation responsibilities, limited attention was paid to urban and intermodal transportation matters. The report nevertheless offers a broad, comprehensive coverage of Canada's transportation system.
The annual report Addendum contains more detailed information on subject matters covered in the overview of transportation presented in the report itself. Readers interested in more detailed and/or time series information are invited to consult this Addendum on Transport Canada's Web site at www.tc.gc.ca. Individual references to the Addendum are found either in the text per se or in footnotes to the text or to tables and figures. Information contained in tables or used to produce figures in last year's report are either updated in the report itself or found in tables in the Addendum. In addition, all annual reports since 1996 are accessible at www.tc.gc.ca.
In one way or another, transportation is a part of all social and economic activities. Transportation opens markets to natural resources, agricultural products and manufactured goods, and it supports service industries. It also overcomes the challenges delimited by topography
and geography, linking communities and reducing the effects of distances separating people from each other. Such essential roles of transportation reflect its intertwined and interdependent relationships with the economic and social fabrics of our society. But transportation needs evolve over time as circumstances and conditions change.
Changes in economic activities affect transportation demand. The changes can take place at various levels, at the regional or sectoral levels, for example. We must keep in mind that demand for transportation services originates from all sectors of the economy — that is, transportation demand is a derived demand. Changes in trade patterns and activities also affect transportation demand and they force adjustments to the supply of transportation services and to transportation infrastructure to accommodate actual and foreseeable trade-driven changes.
The review of the state of transportation in Canada begins with a review of the performance of the Canadian economy (Chapter 2). The Addendum contains relevant detailed information on employment, trade and tourism as well as on transportation energy consumption.
The most recent information on government transportation spending and revenues is found in Chapter 3, which addresses the Section 52 (b) requirement related to the statutory mandate for the annual report. Some of the government transportation spending is directed at specific transportation system infrastructure assets. It is important to remember that the public sector does not plan nor fully control all expenditures and investments in Canada's transportation system. Nonetheless, this chapter does not cover such expenditures and investments made by the private sector.
Safety and security in the transportation system is reviewed in Chapter 4. The safety of Canada's transportation system remains a fundamental priority for Canada. This chapter gives an up-to-date overview of the most recent accidents and incidents statistics by mode. It also covers the enhancements to security – specifically those made in 2006 – since the increased emphasis placed on security following the events of September 11, 2001.
Transportation and the environment is reviewed in Chapter 5, with special attention given to environmental trends in transportation. This includes the whole aspect related to climate change and an overview of the climate change initiatives. It also reviews environmental management-related matters associated with Transport Canada's responsibilities and activities.
The most recent information on transportation by modes of transportation is presented in chapters 6 to 9. For rail (Chapter 6), marine (Chapter 8) and air transportation (Chapter 9), the coverage is structured as special events in 2006, infrastructure, industry structure, freight and passenger transportation activity levels, and, where applicable, intermodalism and performance. All road-related transportation is regrouped in Chapter 7, with coverage of the same subject matters as found in the three modal chapters.
Most of the data used and presented in this report or in the Addendum came from organizations other than Transport Canada. Such external sources bear the onus for data validation. Transport Canada devoted proper care and attention to data quality and limitations when producing this report, and used footnotes where needed to flag issues. When issues were identified, they were flagged to the "source" of the information. Given the constraint of the statutory deadlines under which this report is produced, an issue was not pursued further if the validity of the information was confirmed. In this report, it is only exceptionally that attempts to circumvent data limitations by estimating were made. The final point to flag to the reader is that the report does not attempt to present a prospective view of Canada's transportation system.
|
