Toronto, ON
July 10, 2015
Check against delivery
Introduction
Thank you for the invitation to join you today.
I would like to acknowledge Gil and Nicolas Rémillard and everyone who has made this event take place.
The Toronto Global Forum is fast becoming an important international event that brings together the notable speakers and participants from around the world in the fields of politics, industry, finance and academia.
As all of you here know, this is a very important day for Toronto. In a matter of hours, the PanAm Games will kick off here and will be followed next month by the Parapan Am Games.
As I understand it, this year’s Forum is being held earlier than normal because of the Games.
It‘s a great idea.
There is a lot of excitement in the air and I’m really looking forward to seeing the games, and especially going to the new Velodrome which is in my own riding, just north-west of here in Halton.
Plus, I have two sons who are very pumped.
Close to 7,000 athletes from across Latin America, South America, the Caribbean and North America will take part. Young people who have put in years of hard work to show they can compete on a world-class level.
Competing on a world-class level is also what the Harper government is doing when it comes to trade and transportation.
And that is what I’d like to speak about today.
Trade and transportation in Canada
For most of its history, Canada has been a trading nation and because of this, transportation has been integral to our economic growth and prosperity.
Today under the leadership of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, more than ever, Canada is committed to using trade and transportation as tools to help build our economy.
We can reap economic advantages of international trade, but to be competitive, we must respond to global change.
This means planning strategically for the future and ensuring that our transportation networks are secure and can meet global demands.
It also means continuing to strengthen our relationships with public and private partners, both in Canada and in the nations of the Americas.
These relationships can help all our countries to exchange transportation ideas and best practices.
But they can do more.
They can help us to develop and share a common understanding of the important role that transportation plays in our economies.
And they can help us to maximize the contributions that our transportation systems can make.
I’d like to give you some examples today about how we are meeting these goals.
Canada’s Strategy for Engagement in the Americas
A whole-of-government approach that Canada is taking to this is what we call our Strategy for Engagement in the Americas.
Its three main goals are to increase Canadian and hemispheric economic opportunity; to strengthen security and institutions; and to foster lasting relationships.
The aim of our Strategy for Engagement in the Americas is to make the most of Canada’s relationships with countries in Latin America and the Caribbean by aligning our priorities across the Government to better help Canadian businesses here at home.
That way, we leverage our actions to achieve the greatest impact.
In other words, if a federal department, agency or Crown corporation launches a project with a country in the Americas, we want to ensure that all partners in the Government of Canada, as well other levels of government, the private sector, civil society and academia in Canada, know about this work.
Current examples of such projects include continent-wide exchanges of transportation data, of developments in communications technologies and of technical information regarding civil aviation.
To inform everyone about such efforts, we have developed an extensive database and interactive mapping tool called Panorama.
Panorama connects our various departments and helps them to coordinate information about their projects, activities and initiatives that support Canada’s Strategy for Engagement in the Americas.
As well, the public can access information through Panorama, which displays where the Government of Canada is engaging and how.
Canada-Brazil MOU
This kind of exchange brings me to an achievement that I am very proud to highlight today.
In many regards, Canada is a world leader in aviation.
So it is especially gratifying when we can share what we have learned with nations in the Americas and around the world.
A prime example of Canada’s ability to exchange its experience and skills in air transportation is found in the growing relationship we have with our partners in Brazil.
In recent years, our two nations have worked together to deepen our cooperation in civil aviation.
This cooperation is producing results.
I am pleased to announce today that Canada and Brazil have concluded a memorandum of understanding to promote and expand cooperation in civil aviation, including with private-sector participation.
Through this MoU, my department and Brazil’s Civil Aviation Secretariat will bring together key Canadian and Brazilian stakeholders – both public and private – to discuss how we can work together to address issues such as airport development, air navigation and safety.
This is a true win-win proposition.
It will help us learn from each other, further our bilateral relationship, and create jobs and opportunities for Canadian and Brazilian infrastructure and aerospace product and service providers.
For example, Brazil may wish to learn about how Canada has dealt with the development and support of small and regional airports through our Airports Capital Assistance Program, or ACAP.
ACAP provides financial support to small and regional airports for safety-related improvements to their facilities. Through it, we have invested more than 680 million dollars in projects at 174 airports across Canada which has created jobs and opportunities from coast to coast to coast.
I will be signing this MOU later this morning, and I would like to thank Ambassador Bretas from Brazil for being here today to help make this happen.
Larger trade and transportation issues
This kind of record demonstrates the commitment we have to strengthening trade through transportation and to our desire to do so with international partners.
Trade, in fact, is equivalent to more than 60 per cent of our annual gross domestic product, and one in every five Canadian jobs is directly linked to exports.
Brazil, for example, is our 13th largest trading partner globally. Since 2009, bilateral trade between our two countries has increased by 35 per cent, reaching 5.6 billion dollars in 2014.
So trade is very, very important.
Since 2006, the Harper government has concluded trade agreements covering 38 countries, bringing the number of countries covered by Canadian trade agreements to 43.
As a result of the new trade agreement with the European Union and the entry into force of the Canada-Korea Free Trade Agreement on January 1st of this year, Canadian businesses will benefit from preferential access to more than half of the entire global marketplace.
And the trade talks have not stopped.
To look ahead to tomorrow, we are also addressing overarching issues that face our communities and our country. Allow me to mention a couple of them.
The Arctic
First, there is the Arctic. The Arctic holds both promise and challenge for transportation in Canada, and indeed, for the world.
So, for more than 40 years, we have worked to address the risks that ships face in polar waters.
We have helped the International Maritime Organization to develop a mandatory Polar Code, which addresses both the safety and environmental protection aspects of shipping.
And when the Polar Code comes into force internationally in 2017, its safety and environmental measures will finally come close to what is already in place for vessels in Canada.
Canada-U.S. coordination
When it comes to transportation between Canada and the United States, consumers and businesses want transportation technologies to work seamlessly between Canada and the U.S.
Under the leadership of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Canada signed the Beyond the Border Agreement with President Obama which also provides Canada to work with our American partners under what is called the Regulatory Cooperation Council.
This initiative outlines concrete measures to facilitate regulatory alignment across a wide range of transportation sectors, in areas such as auto safety standards. And it is in this spirit that we recently announced aligned crude rail car regulations with our U.S. partners. The Regulatory Cooperation Council also looks at new and emerging technology such as drones or U.A.V.s (Unmanned Air Vehicles) and the opportunity for regulatory cooperation in these areas.
Conclusion
Because transportation is so fundamental to Canada’s development, government will always have a role to play in it. We will continue to work with our Canadian partners in the public and private sectors to live up to these responsibilities.
And we will continue to work our partners in the Americas and other regions around the globe to maintain transportation that is efficient, responsible and safe.
I thank you for asking me to join you today.
And I hope you all have the opportunity to witness this very important day in Toronto.
Thank you very much.
