Senate’s reports on airports and containerization valuable resources

Canada is recovering, but we are doing so unevenly and not without growing pains. Some of those pains resulted from the spread of the delta variant. Other challenges facing Canada’s recovery are more systemic and have not escaped previous parliamentary notice. Two industries in particular stand out for consideration: airports and maritime ports. Let us not forget that the Senate has, in the past, taken on major studies on both airports and containerization. The Senate Transport Committee released Time for New National Vision on maritime ports and two major reports on the air sector: The Future of Canadian Air Travel: Toll Booth or Spark Plug? and One Size Doesn’t Fit All: The Future Growth and Competitiveness of Canadian Air Travel. Before the election, I commented on Canada’s excellent financial health, and that remains true. The well-coordinated and robust policy action of the Liberal government protected Canadian lives and has left Canada well equipped to build back better. I also applauded the federal government’s funding announcements for critical infrastructure programs across Canada. I emphasized the need to support regional development, and to investing public transit infrastructure—both of which made an appearance in the Liberal Party Platform: Forward for Everyone. The pandemic has highlighted a number of pressure points for Canada, and rebuilding has exposed yet more. For example, shifting consumption habits have changed consumer demand, and, in turn, sped up the containerization of goods. Early victims of this shift were the supply cycles earlier this year—or lack thereof—but with the holidays looming on the horizon many other sectors are beginning to feel the crunch. These subjects are not new for Senate committees. In Time for a New National Vision the Senate Committee on Transport and Communications recognized the rise of containerization and its impact on Canada as a shipping gateway to the North American continent. At that time, the largest container ship could hold 11,000 ‘standard’ shipping containers, and experts estimated that ship capacity could rise to 18,000 containers. Well, if a picture says a thousand words, then images earlier this year of the Ever Given blocking the Suez Canal illustrate the rapid growth of containerization since then; the Ever Given has a container capacity of 20,000 units. In years past, federal government investments for the movement of goods across Canada paid dividends. While port capacity of containers is an ongoing issue, the movement of shipping containers rely on an expensive network of rail and trucks to move goods overland. The National Trade Corridor Fund will continue to provide critical infrastructure investment to help ease Canada’s growing pains and may help unblock some of the supply-chain bottlenecks. The Liberal Party Platform committed to the high frequency rail (HFR) project for the Toronto-Québec City corridor. In a party platform with few 100-day promises, the HFR commitment included launching the procurement process by the end of 2021. As it currently stands, passenger and freight transportation must share rail time and track. HFR will help alleviate some of Canada’s supply-chain pain by easing the transport of freight, while also expanding avenues for passenger transit—transit which comes with a host of economic benefits in its own right. The pandemic also exposed vulnerability in the air transportation sector, including reduced service to rural areas, the loss of direct routes, and the potential closures of control towers. While the government’s regional relief and recovery funds helped, it remains to be seen how well these industries will rebound. Notably, while the HFR was mentioned, the situation facing airports and airlines was absent from the Liberal election platform. However, step-by-step efforts to safely relaunch air travel have already begun. The recent decisions to re-open the borders to vaccinated travellers from the U.S. and Mexico, and to require all domestic travellers to be vaccinated, are part of that larger strategy. I have no doubt that the Canadian government will have more to come, and will continue to support critical infrastructure investment through the Airport Critical Infrastructure Program. Since very little legislation is predicted in the short term, I would hope the major Senate studies in these two sectors could act as a starting point for further worthwhile Senate review. As we wait for Parliament to return, all we can do is speculate as to what projects parliamentary committees may undertake, but the appetite is there. Still, the changes at the Senate over the summer between appointments, retirements, and group movement make it difficult to predict what those committees will ultimately look like. Progressive Senate Group Senator Dennis Dawson (Lauzon, Que.) was the former chair of the Senate's Transport Committee. The Hill Times