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INTRODUCTION

The 2000 annual report presents the state of transportation
in Canada using the most current information available.

When the Canada Transportation Act was passed in 1996, the Minister of Transport assumed the statutory responsibility to table an annual report on the state of transportation in Canada. The mandate for the report is spelled out in Section 52 of the Act:

"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 expenses;

(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."

In this fifth report submitted by the Minister, readers will find an overview of transportation in Canada, based on the most current data and information available. With a broad scope unconstrained by jurisdictional considerations, this overview of transportation in Canada is comprehensive. There is, however, one exception: pipeline transportation activities - important for the transportation of oil, petroleum and gas products - remain outside the report's scope.

Data availability has always been a key limiting factor with this annual report. Ideally, it should cover the year 2000 throughout, but this absolutely up-to-date reporting occurs only where the necessary data were available. The report does, however, consistently review the most current year possible. In addition, the report examines trends in the transportation sector. Because of this coverage, previous reports may prove important to those interested in information over the long term.

Even with its data limitations, the report highlights Canada's major transportation "events" in 2000. Throughout the year, energy price increases were important. Accordingly, the report pays special attention to this issue, addressing the subject in many chapters from different perspectives. For instance, the chapter on the economy looks at the impact of energy price increases on major macro-economic indicators, while the chapter on energy and environment discusses energy prices themselves. The chapter on price, productivity and financial performance examines the potential impact of energy price increases on cost structure and price changes in each mode.

The content of this report, as in the last two reports, is not mode-specific, which allows for a horizontal view of transportation. The world is changing, and the demands that transportation users are placing on the system are changing as market conditions change. This horizontal approach makes it easier to identify similarities and differences in changes taking place across modes of transportation and to see when changes are unique to a mode.

The chapters in this report follow a logical sequence. The first chapter examines the Canadian economy and illustrates the state of transportation in Canada and the forces at play in 2000. The chapter on government transportation spending and revenues follows, showing the net fiscal budgetary attention devoted by governments to the sector. In addition, this chapter addresses a specific aspect of the Annual Report mandate. It is important to keep in mind, however, that government spending provides only a partial picture of the level of expenditures and investment in transportation operations and infrastructure.

Chapters on key subjects, including safety, energy and environment, regional economies, employment, trade, and tourism come next. The safety chapter is particularly important because it deals with one of the key priorities for Canada's transportation system. As mentioned earlier, the energy and environment chapter is also important this year because it gives special attention to energy price increases.

As in previous years, the regional economies chapter gives an overview of transportation by region. Once again, it was impossible to isolate the Nunavut territory because the data required were not available. Next is the chapter on transportation and employment, which shows that the sector is a significant source of employment in the Canadian economy. It also reviews the management-labour issues that the sector confronted in 2000.

Two chapters follow on activities that are growing in importance for the Canadian economy: trade and tourism. For trade, the emphasis is on freight-related activities both in terms of flows and modal distribution. Tourism includes all passenger transportation activities tied to leisure, business and other purposes.

Five chapters on an assortment of transportation topics come last. The chapter on infrastructure illustrates Canada's overall transportation infrastructure, without which transportation services could not be offered. In addition, this chapter addresses incidental services of importance to the safe and secure operations of the transportation system - for example, the air navigation system and marine pilotage services. Three chapters then look at transport service industries from different perspectives: industry structure, freight transportation and passenger transportation. The final chapter looks at prices, productivity and financial performance in the transportation sector.

Sources outside the department have been used quite extensively for the data in this report. The validation of these external data rests first and foremost with the organizations that produce and generate it. Proper care and attention was dedicated throughout the production of this report to data quality and data limitations. Data availability and limitations constraining the analyses reported are indicated within the report. As much as possible, when current timely data were not available, it was not estimated. In addition, this report analyses the most current state of the country's transportation system and does not try to predict what it may be in coming years.