Senate Committee endorses Northern Corridor concept

CALGARY – Last week, the Senate Committee on Banking, Trade and Commerce issued a report on Canadian’s infrastructure future called National Corridor: Enhancing and Facilitating Commerce and Internal Trade. The report calls for the construction of an east-west corridor through Canada’s northern regions. According to a Senate news release, “The idea is to establish a right-of-way that would accommodate highways, railways, pipelines as well as electrical transmission and communications networks. The new national corridor would tie into existing infrastructure in southern Canada like the Trans-Canada Highway and the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway.”

The Senate Committee, described the Northern Corridor concept, which was authored by The School of Public Policy at the University of Calgary and Montreal based CIRANO, as “A 7,000-kilometre transportation corridor across Canada’s North will have as revolutionary an impact on today’s Canadian economy as the coast-to-coast railway did in the 1800s.”

Pierre-Gerlier Forest, Director and James S. and Barbara A. Palmer Chair at The School of Public Policy called the Senate report, “a major endorsement of a new way to envision the future of infrastructure in Canada.  The Northern Corridor is a multi-modal right of way built in the north that would link three oceans and create access to international markets.  Northern Corridor would also facilitate domestic transportation and the enrichment of northern and Indigenous communities.  It’s new thinking on infrastructure and wealth creation in Canada. We look forward to working with levels of government to bring a critical mass of experts to drive this concept from idea, to execution.”

Canada’s prosperity largely depends on our nineteenth and twentieth century accomplishments. Canada was built by visionaries who were able to overcome geographic and topographic challenges with infrastructure projects like the trans-continental railways, highways and the St. Lawrence Seaway. But on the 150th anniversary of Confederation, Canada faces serious challenges to its continued growth and prosperity as a trading country; challenges that are political and economic as well as geographic: Improving access for our goods to diversified international markets, improving interprovincial trade and, most importantly, including the north in the prosperity of the south.  The Northern Corridor is a way to unite Canada economically east, west, north and south, to bring badly needed trade diversification, and to encourage private investment in national infrastructure projects.

A copy of the Northern Corridor feasibility study can be found here.  The Senate Committee report can be found here.

SOURCE The School of Public Policy – University of Calgary