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Introduction

The 2001 annual report presents the state of transportation in Canada
using the most current information available.

The Canada Transportation Act (1996) has given to the Minister of Transport a statutory responsibility to table every year an annual report on the state of transportation in Canada. Section 52 of the Act gives details on the mandate behind this report:

"Each year the Minister 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:

(a) the financial viability of each mode of transportation and its contribution to the Canadian economy and the development of the regions;

(b) the extent to which carriers and modes of transportation were provided resources, facilities and services at public expense;

(c) 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

(d) any other transportation matters the Minister considers appropriate."

This 2001 report is the sixth annual report submitted by the Minister since the Canada Transportation Act came into force. As with the previous reports, this one gives an overview of transportation in Canada, using the most current data and information available. Its scope is not limited to federal transportation responsibilities. However, the coverage of urban transportation matters is limited to urban transit transportation, and no coverage is made of pipelines. Nevertheless, the overview given is unique in its comprehensiveness.

Data availability limits the extent to which matters have been dealt with in the chapters which follow. Where data for 2001 was available, these chapters review transportation in Canada for that year; where such data was not available, transportation information in the most recent year for which data was available is provided. Readers interested in longer-term perspectives on the state of transportation in Canada are invited to consult previous annual reports, all available on the Transport Canada Web site at http://www.tc.gc.ca/pol/en/anre/transportation_annual_report.htm.

Because this report highlights major transportation "events" in 2001, it was important to pay some special attention to the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, as they had some repercussions on transportation in Canada. As a result of these tragic events, transportation security, which has always been of primary importance, became a subject of even greater scrutiny. The events of September 11 permeate numerous sections of this report. These events contributed to the slowdown in the North American economy in 2001.

The structure of this report purposely avoids having a separate chapter for each mode of transportation, as was the case for the last three reports. Instead, it covers a given subject for all modes of transportation. This structure allows the reader to readily compare and contrast modal activities and conditions, or to simply understand the linkages among modes and how events impacted across them.

Everything Canadians do relies on transportation. Natural resources have little use until they are freed by transportation; crops in remote areas have little value until non-local markets are opened up for them. Transportation opens the door to regional, national and global trade. The relationships between transportation and the economy, not to mention society as a whole, are complex, deep, numerous and varied.

Transportation, the economy and society are interdependent. The report starts with Chapter 2 which reviews the performance of the Canadian economy, both at the national and regional levels. The economy has an important influence on the state of transportation in Canada, as large regional and sectoral variations permeate the transportation sector and contribute to differences in requirements for transportation services. Transportation is used by all sectors of the economy, and the nation's gross expenditures on transportation are significant.Note 1 Transportation faced a decline in demand, reflecting the economic conditions that prevailed during the year.

Chapter 3 shows the most recent information on government transportation spending and revenues, including the net amounts allocated by governments on transportation. It addresses a specific aspect of the Annual Report statutory mandate, outlined in Section 52 (b) of the Canada Transportation Act. When reading this chapter, it is important to remember that transportation is not a homogeneous system and that it is only partly planned and controlled by governments. That is, expenditures on and investments in transportation are also made by the private sector.

The chapters which follow deal with a number of key subjects -- including safety and security, energy and environment, employment, trade and tourism.

The safety and security chapter is particularly important, as it deals with Canadians' concerns with the transportation system particularly since September 11. Societal concern about the environment has also become more pronounced. The chapter on environment and energy informs and presents trends that are relevant to these two closely interrelated subjects. But the environmental concerns related to transportation presented here go beyond discussing the energy consumed by transportation activities and the resulting emissions of gases. It covers other aspects of environmental quality that may be affected by transportation.

The chapter on employment assesses the importance of transportation as a source of employment in the Canadian economy and examines the question of salaries within the sector.

Transportation activities in relation to trade and tourism, which have been key drivers of growth for the Canadian economy are discussed next.

When considering trade, the emphasis is placed on freight-related activities, both in terms of flows and modal distribution. Tourism is approached with a broad brush that allows for inclusion of all passenger transportation activities tied to leisure and business, but not intra-urban activities. The tourism chapter focuses on passenger travel in relation to purposes outside usual day-to-day travel.

The next five chapters give the most recent information available on transportation. The first of these deals with transportation infrastructure, both physical infrastructure assets as well as incidental services needed for the safe and secure operation of the transportation system (e.g. air navigation system, marine pilotage services). The following three look at transport service industries from three different perspectives -- industry structure, freight transportation and passenger transportation. The final chapter of this group considers price, productivity and the financial performance of transportation sectors.

Most of the data used in the analysis presented in this report came from sources external to Transport Canada. While the onus for data validation rests with the external data sources that were used, proper care and attention to data quality and limitations were ensured throughout the production of this report. Whenever data-related issues surfaced, they were brought to the attention of the sources used. But when data accuracy was confirmed, data quality was no longer challenged. Data availability and limitations constraining the analysis are flagged in footnotes within the report. Any lack of current data that surfaced during the production of the report was not circumvented by estimating missing data elements. The report presents the most current state of the country's transportation system, but does not attempt to develop a prospective view of the system in the coming years.

NOTE

1 Due tolack of data, it was impossible to isolate the Nunavut territory this year.