Getting to Prosperity with National Corridors - Part Two

DIRECT ECONOMIC BENEFITS

Unlocking Canada's Potential through Sustainable Transportation Solutions

Resource development has always been at the forefront of creating economic wealth in our Nations. Two-thirds of the country’s GDP is linked to trade from transportation corridors within the country.

Our natural resources deserve the good stewardship approach, and we all deserve a project that speaks to our diversity, uniqueness, and the common good and prosperity for all. We all enjoy the freedom to dream and the courage to dare to build that dream. We have accomplished it in the past, what is wrong now? It is ironic, technology is far more superior today, yet the ability to trust, be bold and make desperately needed quantum leaps avoids Canada. Why? Complacency and the lack of believe like in the past centuries.

We need to act responsibly, forward looking, initiative-taking, not reactive, and we need to be accountable because the future generations depend on it. We need to attract investment but always maintain control of our assets both tangible and intangible. Safe to say, a President that believes in his vision, managed to attract more than one trillion dollars in investment within its first few days since inaugurated. We have been too consumed with consensus and focusing on totally the wrong things the past decade. Its time to change for a much needed and improved vision for our future.

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The best way to attack the debt is to build an economy that generates surpluses so that economic growth can excel beyond historic growth rates given the concerns of rising inflation. In other words, growth must be supported by improved productivity. And in return, what seems like “dead,” uncertain infrastructure investment capital seeds the future and spawns prosperity.

In the space of mega-infrastructure projects, a notable example of a multi-generational project is the Lesotho Highlands Water Project. Conceived in the 1950’s the project is a joint venture between the South African Government and the Government of Lesotho (a land-locked country surrounded by the whole of South Africa (think Quebec and Canada). Consisting of 4 Phases, Phase IA (started in 1992 completed in 1998) and Phase IB (completed only in 2003), Phase II (started in 2014) expected to be completed only in 2028). This project’s purpose is to improve prosperity for Lesotho while South Africa procures water to be pumped from Lesotho further inland to the province of Gauteng and used to generate? Hydroelectricity. Lesotho gained much needed paved roads resulting from this Mega water infrastructure project. Funded by the World Bank and a running cost to date at the approximated size of the Canadian annual GDP.

?Corridors bring about efficiencies in transportation economics and through that make a meaningful contribution to improving productivity. Our Nation needs significant capital projects that create jobs with proven defined ability to generate revenue and taxes and develop value-added processing and manufacturing capacities. We need to bolster our ability to sell surplus resources to external markets.

We need to import less - encourage the creation of many more internal national markets (cancel all inter-provincial tariffs) as opposed to provincial markets, to bring value to our Nation as a whole - and better manage nationally installed regulatory barriers to facilitate access to world markets, especially energy markets.

Corridor development provides the vehicle for direct and indirect jobs benefits through the construction and operation of needed infrastructure. New and enlarged existing communities will result in addition to new businesses, all from the corridor development and the communities and businesses. Our project goal is to establish a corridor of purpose to build strong, prosperous Nations.

Never in our history has there been such a project with such diversity of purpose and opportunity and with such inclusivity among all the people of our nation. The bias of this project lies with honesty and the shared values that provide empowerment and prosperity for all. The proposed Corridor will be a national multi-modular connector that provides hope for a better future. The time for action is now. Canada should not be a hostage to any nation. Canada needs a national mid to northern multi modal corridor which branches out to the Yukon, Nunavut and the Northwest Territories and Labrador/Newfoundland. Canada needs to provide Canadian companies access to the entire world through many ports and many routes across Canada.

In the accompanying we reflect on how the Corridor boundaries have been identified since the 1950s and in recent years. Canada has already grown by developments within the 1969 Corridor boundaries (the black-colored area), and in recent years those boundaries have shifted out considering more long-term development potential (the orange/brown-colored area)[1].

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[1] Mid-Canada Corridor. Diagram of Canada adapted from the 1969 concept of the Mid-Canada Corridor (Rohmer, 1969) and its modern re-imagining to include newly discovered resource rich areas (Van Nostrand, 2014). Foundational Map (Chris Brackley)

Over the last few years CPUC have invested time and effort to determine what exactly 20- to 50-km wide Corridor arteries would look like. This approach refines the previous work done to date[1] ?Previous work defines the broader boundaries. To ensure corridor developments have a solid chance for success, it must be viewed against practicalities, existing infrastructure, identifying connection with existing infrastructure, identifying Indigenous and Environmental aspects to support furthering developments. Our identified opportunities (CPUC 2020’s refined and Re-defined Corridor-Boundaries) lays out and supports a specific and different approach towards consultations, inclusion, and demarcation.

[1] Mid-Canada Corridor. Diagram of Canada adapted from the 1969 concept of the Mid-Canada Corridor (Rohmer, 1969) and its modern re-imagining to include newly discovered resource rich areas (Van Nostrand, 2014). Foundational Map (Chris Brackley)

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From The WALRUS, John Van Nostrand (Sep 2014, updated Apr 2020) wrote.”

“…Forty-seven years ago, perhaps in the outsized spirit of Expo 67, the retired major general and author Richard Rohmer put forward a bold proposal in Mid-Canada Development Corridor: A Concept. It described a vast landmass stretching from Newfoundland and Labrador across Quebec, Ontario, and the Prairies, to British Columbia and up through Northwest Territories and Yukon, occupying the area between southern settlements and the treeline—a band dominated by boreal forest. His idea was to implement a national strategy to develop and populate it. Rohmer reasoned that Canada was poised to be a world leader in resource extraction, and that our future was tied to that endeavour. Mid-Canada was rich in minerals, oil, and gas, largely untouched, and had a habitable climate. The key to the plan was new infrastructure, which both the government and private sector would finance. At the time, there were a few north–south arteries in place, and more were needed; east–west links needed improvement. Some existing settlements could be expanded to serve as urban hubs. The middle of the country could be settled in much the same way the West had been settled three generations earlier, when Canada saw its future in agriculture. The plan was studied at various conferences, but the final version in 1971 failed to attract the needed support of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, so it eventually withered and died.

Canada is stuck in running circles. Clearly what was said then remains valid today. This confirms the inability to invest effort, the lack and inability to “slingshot” around the moon, notwithstanding having well qualified citizens, technology and mega project experience stemming from Trans Mountain (2024) (although the value for money can be disputed), Trans-Canada Highway (1971), St. Lawrence Sea Way (1959), Canada Pacific Rail (1885). Something called “mega project gap-creep” erodes our tenacity to execute. In other words, the duration between large infrastructure projects has eroded knowledge transfer. Since Corridor developments are multi-decade and also multi-century, we must guard against adding to the list of knowledge fatigue. The plans that CPUC have been developing is done with an approach of “what is required to outlive each of us involved with- and developing CPUC!

Canada needs to build its own diversified markets! Canada needs to develop its national trade and transportation infrastructure to serve ALL of its people and resources! Canada needs to defend its own borders and needs to step up. The last decade isa lost decade. We need to show the world we are still here!