Minister Alghabra announces investments to strengthen our supply chain and create good jobs

April 14, 2022              Brampton, Ontario

Through Budget 2022: A Plan to Grow Our Economy and Make Life More Affordable, the Government of Canada is making targeted and responsible investments to create good jobs, grow our economy, and build a Canada where nobody gets left behind.

Today, the Minister of Transport, the Honourable Omar Alghabra, announced investments for good jobs, a reliable supply chain, and a strong economy.

Continued investments in transportation infrastructure will help ensure Canada’s supply chains can meet the needs of our economy and withstand disruptions caused by climate change and global events. Well-functioning supply chains support good jobs and keep goods moving. 

To help build more resilient and efficient supply chains, Budget 2022 proposes to provide $603.2 million over five years, starting in 2022-23, to Transport Canada, including:

• $450 million over five years, starting in 2022-23, to support supply chain projects through the National Trade Corridors Fund, which will help ease the movement of goods across Canada’s transportation networks. This is in addition to the $4.2 billion that has been allocated to the fund since 2017. The Minister of Transport will rename the fund to reflect the government’s focus on supply chains;
•  $136.3 million over five years, starting in 2022-23, to develop industry- driven solutions to use data to make our supply chains more efficient, building on the success of initiatives like the West Coast Supply Chain Visibility Program. Of this amount, $19 million will be sourced from existing resources; and
• $16.9 million over five years, starting in 2022-23, to continue making Canada’s supply chains more competitive by cutting needless red tape, including working to ensure that regulations across various modes of cargo transportation (e.g., ship, rail) work effectively together.

These investments will help lower prices for Canadians; make our supply chains stronger; improve the ability of Canadian businesses to export their goods abroad; and deliver essential goods to our communities.

These investments will complement work the government is doing through the newly established National Supply Chain Task Force, which will work with industry, associations and experts to examine key pressures and make recommendations regarding short- and long-term actions to strengthen the efficiency, fluidity, and resiliency of transportation infrastructure and the reliability of Canada’s supply chains.

Budget 2022 invests in economic growth and innovation—the key to Canada’s long-term prosperity. This includes launching a new world-leading Canada Growth Fund that will attract tens of billions of dollars in private investment in Canadian industries and Canadian jobs, and a new innovation and investment agency that will help drive productivity and growth across our economy. The budget also proposes to implement Canada’s first Critical Minerals Strategy—one that will create thousands of good jobs and capitalize on a growing need for the minerals used in everything from phones to electric cars. Measures also include steps to build more resilient supply chains, and to cut taxes for Canada’s growing small businesses.