Canada can’t pass up opportunity to become North American gateway

Canada has the opportunity to become the North American gateway of choice for trade with emerging markets in Asia and Europe but a number of issues must be addressed or the opportunity could slip away, warns a recent report from the Conference Board of Canada.

“Of the three NAFTA countries, Canada is the closest geographically to both Europe and Asia, has the lowest export administrative burden, and has recently made or announced important port and border investments. The country is, therefore, well positioned as a continental gateway.

“However, there is a gap in Canada’s physical infrastructure capacity to meet continental gateway needs, and the gap is made wider by “soft” issues. It is these “soft” issues-for example, establishing common hours of service standards for truck drivers, or developing an education strategy to build industry skills-that may be even more critical to Canada’s long-term international competitiveness than physical infrastructure spending,” the report states.

The report entitled, Addressing Gaps in the Transportation Network: Seizing Canada’s Continental Gateway Advantage, discusses a number of actions that should be taken now to ensure that Canada becomes the continental gateway of choice in and out of North America for trading partners in Asia and Europe.

Canada already is a gateway for Asian imports. According to the report, Vancouver’s inbound container traffic doubled from 1998 to 2005, then grew a 30.1% in 2006. “On the west coast, Vancouver and the new container terminal at Prince Rupert are well positioned to service China’s manufactured goods departing from the ports of Bohai Bay (Dalian, Qingdao, and Tianjin), Shanghai and Ningbo (in northern China), and the cargo-rich hinterlands of Korean and Japanese ports, like Busan and Yokohama.

On the east coast, the port of Halifax has the spare capacity that will be needed when the economies of South Asia come into their own as manufacturing powerhouses. The Atlantic Provinces Economic Council anticipates that potential shifts within Asia in terms of the location of manufacturing activity-driven by increasing wage demands within China-could favour increased shipments from countries such as Malaysia, Vietnam, and Thailand,” the report says.

However, the report says that there is currently a gap in Canada’s physical infrastructure capacity to meet continental gateway needs that is further exacerbated by other “soft” issues.

“Physical infrastructure investments are critical for the future growth of the Canadian gateway option. The federal government’s Gateways and Corridors Initiative is a good first step in addressing the existing infrastructure gaps needed to seize trading opportunities.

“However, the “soft” issues may be even more critical to Canada’s long-term international competitiveness than physical infrastructure spending. This strategy may be a hard sell to officials who like to cut ribbons on big infrastructure projects. Indeed, they are less likely to get political kudos for changing the regulatory environment in order to streamline international trade and to make Canada a preferred location for investment.

The report recommends a number of initiatives that the federal government should undertake including: commit to coordinated infrastructure planning, not just with the provinces, but with Canada’s NAFTA partners as well; move away from fully self-financing port models and provide financial support for projects of national significance; reduce administrative burden to global best practices; work to establish common hours of service standards for truck drivers, and mutual recognition or common standards for trucks within NAFTA; commit to collecting and making available data suitable for transportation planning; and develop a national strategy to support transportation industry skills development.

At the same time, provincial governments need to collaborate to minimize the number of recognized truck equipment standards within Canada, and support federal government efforts to minimize equipment variations within NAFTA; and develop an education strategy to build skills for the industry.

Jerry Cook
Editor, MPP
jcook@clbmedia.ca

Brenco donates scale to Kwantlen University College

(Left to right): Gerald M. Shankel, president and CEO of the Fabricators & Manufacturers Association; Robert Finlayson, Kwantlen metal fabrication and welding instructor; and Steve Heim, president of Brenco Industries during the presentation of the scale at Kwantlen University College.

Brenco Industries Ltd., Delta, BC, with the support of the Fabricators & Manufacturers Association International (FMA), recently donated a 5,000 lb. capacity digital crane suspended scale to the Kwantlen Metal Fabrication program at the Kwantlen University College Trades and Technology Centre just outside of Vancouver, BC.

Brenco recently purchased the crane through an FMA Foundation auction fundraiser, but had never used it. “We then learned that the Kwantlen Metal Fabrication program needed exactly this kind of scale and decided what a great way to give back to our industry and help young people planning a career in fabricating,” says Steve Heim, president of Brenco. Heim was recently elected as chairman of FMA’s board of directors.

The scale will be used to ensure students have accurately calculated the weight and cost of the material used in their class design and build projects. As a result, students will be better prepared to determine the costs of production when going to job sites.

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