ABSTRACT
This chapter explores whether the recent Canadian designation of trade corridors and gateways beginning with the Asia-Pacific Gateway and Corridor Initiative, then the Ontario-Quebec Continental Corridor and Gateway and the Atlantic Gateway may generate a bottom-up national strategic transportation plan. The basis of the Senate Committees concern for improved collaboration and coordination arose from the many constraints they found in the container transportation sector. Canadian provinces have different truck weights and dimensions, varied taxes on cross-province trucking and rail movements, and subsidy levels. Trade corridors and gateways provide an essential means of encouraging enhanced integration, collaboration and co-operation in infrastructure investments by private and public partners. On a broader international scale, the Atlantic Gateway expects considerable trade growth from India and other Southeast Asian countries through the Suez Canal to Halifax and other regional ports.
