TRANSPORTATION INFRASTRUCTURE IN CANADA 1

Running Head: TRANSPORTATION INFRASTRUCTURE IN CANADA

An Evaluation of the Transportation Infrastructure in

Canada
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An Evaluation of the Transportation Infrastructure of Canada

Canada is a vast nation and its transportation infrastructure is very important for its trade

and economy to flourish. In fact Canada’s history is closely linked to the development of its

transportation infrastructure. The early settlers in Canada depended mainly on waterways and

used canoes to cross the nation’s numerous lakes and rivers and hence constructed canals (HC,

2015). Next, they built railway lines and later roads and highways. Today, air transport is much

widely used by Canadians to travel to different areas of the country. There are basically five

ways of transportation in Canada – water, road, rail, air and pipeline (HC, 2015)

Water transportation plays a huge role in Canadian economy as one third of what Canada

produces is exported by ship to countries overseas (HC, 2015). Water transportation is of three

types - ocean transportation, inland water transportation and coastal transportation. Canada has

636 km of waterways and ranks 78th in the world (CIA, 2015). It has 181 merchant marines that

serve its major sea ports - Halifax, Saint John (New Brunswick) and Vancouver (GC, 2015).

Lake carriers and other vessels are used to ferry across the Great lakes and its canals so as to

supply goods to inland regions of Canada. The Great Lakes St Lawrence Seaway system is used

to transport iron ore to the steel mills in the US and to transport coal from the US to Canada (HC,

2015). In the context of coastal transportation, bulk goods such as logs, wood chips, lumber, etc.

are transported in barges along BC’s coastal waters.

In Canada, roadways play an important role in transportation. Canadians drive around in

cars, vans, buses or trucks to move from one place to another. According to the CIA data of

2013, Canada has 1042300 km of roadways of which 415600 km are paved (CIA, 2015). Canada

ranks seventh in the world for roadways. There is over 38000 km of national and regional
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highways (TC, 2015, p. 1). The public and the private sectors work together to support the

Canada's Road Safety Strategy 2015 plan (HC, 2015). Provincial governments have built most

Canada’s roads and highways except for the highways in “national parks and Aboriginal

reserves, the Alaska Highway and the Trans-Canada Highway (see Roads and Highways)” (HC,

2015, p. 1).

Canada had its first railway line in 1836 and railways were used to explore regions for

settlement, to unify the country, to protect it and politically build it (HC, 2015). The early

railway constructions include the Grand Trunk Railway (1850) from Sarnia to Portland, Maine

via Toronto and Montreal, the Great Western Railway (1854) between the Niagara and the

Detroit rivers via Hamilton and the Intercolonial Railway (1870) (HC, 2015). Canada now has

46552 km of railways and its railway infrastructure is the fifth largest in the world (CIA, 2015).

Railways are the main transport for transferring bulk goods such as coal, potash, grain and

sulphur across the country and the major rail carriers are Canadian National (CN) and Canadian

Pacific (CP) (GC, 2015). Passenger trains exist and are popular to a lesser extent compared to

other forms of travel. Via Rail Canada Inc. looks after cross country passenger train operations

from Halifax, Nova Scotia, in the east to Vancouver and Prince Rupert, British Columbia, in the

west (GC, 2015).

As a result of the 1995 Open Skies agreement between US and Canada there has been a

huge development in Canada’s trans-border airways (HC, 2015). Canada has 1467 airports

(2013) and 26 heliports (CIA, 2015). When it comes to airway infrastructure, Canada stands 4th

in the world (CIA, 2015). Under the National Airports Policy, Transport Canada owns three

airports that are maintained by local authorities in B.C. — Vancouver, Victoria and Kelowna

Airports (TC, 2015). Air passengers and cargo fly across Canada and around the world on local,
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regional, national and international airlines (TC, 2015). Over 22 per cent of Canada's air

passengers fly in or out of British Columbia, helping to make Vancouver International Airport

Canada's second busiest airport and a major West Coast gateway (TC, 2015).

Canada has good pipelines that are used to transport petroleum and petroleum products.

They are also used to transport bitumen from Alberta oil sands projects (HC, 2015). Though

pipelines are reliable and affordable, they require high investment and not very useful to

transport small quantities of goods. Other kinds of transportation infrastructure include

intermodal transportation where two different transport modes work together – trucks carried on

ferry boats or ships (HC, 2015).

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References

CIA (2015). The World Factbook - Canada. Retrieved at

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ca.html

GC (2015). Transportation. Retrieved at http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/newcomers/after-

transportation.asp

HC (2015). Transportation. Retrieved at

http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/transportation/

TC (2015). Road Transportation. Retrieved at https://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/road-menu.htm