Foreword
A message from John Baird, Minister of Transport and Infrastructure
Canada’s prosperity and opportunities for rewarding jobs in our communities have always relied heavily on our considerable success as a trading nation. That is why competitiveness in global commerce is a top priority, in good economic times and even more so in periods of greater challenge.
This National Policy Framework for Strategic Gateways and Trade Corridors helps advance that priority. The strategies developed and implemented under this Framework contribute to Canada’s competitiveness by further developing and exploiting the transportation systems that are most important for international trade.
Transportation and trade have always gone hand in hand. However, under this Framework, the Government of Canada is breaking new ground. The gateway approach responds directly to the manner in which the global economy works in the 21st Century. It helps Canadian exporters and importers do what they must in order to succeed today. And furthermore, the Gateways and Corridors policy provides a win-win dynamic for engagement with Canada’s most important trading partners.
While leadership is essential to advancing Gateways, so is partnership. Each of the Gateway Strategies is based on real partnerships between the public and private sectors, and between federal and provincial governments.
The National Policy Framework was first released in 2007. Together with the Gateways and Border Crossings Fund, and the Asia-Pacific Gateway and Corridor Initiative, it forms a special thrust within Building Canada, the federal government’s overall plan for infrastructure.
The level of federal investment in that plan is unprecedented, and yet the Gateway approach goes well beyond the bricks and mortar. Together with partners, Gateway Strategies are addressing a range of interconnected issues that will allow us to make the most of both public and private investments. A comprehensive, integrated and strategic approach, this Gateways policy framework represents an important new direction in transportation and trade, with real benefits for many years to come.
A comprehensive, integrated and strategic approach, this Gateways policy framework represents an important new direction in transportation and trade, with real benefits for many years to come.
National Policy Framework for Strategic Gateways and Trade Corridors
The National Policy Framework for Strategic Gateways and Trade Corridors has been developed to advance the competitiveness of the Canadian economy on the rapidly changing playing field of global commerce. It will do so by providing focus and direction for strategies that foster further development and exploitation of the transportation systems that are key to Canada’s most important opportunities and challenges in international trade.
Strategies advanced under this Framework will enhance multimodal integration of major transportation systems, as well as their efficiency, safety, security, and sustainability. They also could address other, interconnected issues that impact on how well those systems work and how well Canada takes advantage of them. The Framework and the strategies it will support are instruments of national policy tailored to geographic, trade and transportation opportunities in different regions of Canada. This national approach emphasizes rigorous analysis and long-term planning in partnerships among governments and between public and private sectors.
The National Policy Framework for Strategic Gateways and Trade Corridors will also help guide investment decisions for the new $2.1 billion fund for gateways and border crossings established by Budget 2007 as part of Building Canada, the federal government’s long-term infrastructure plan.
“No country in the world is better positioned than Canada to prosper in the emerging global economy… The Gateway Initiative is obviously critical to realizing our potential as a country.”~Prime Minister Stephen Harper, May 2007