Thank you, Madam Chair and members, for allowing us to be here today. We believe that the St. Lawrence Seaway is a vital linchpin connecting the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence corridor. Today, we will give you a brief overview of our operation and structure, and some of our activities within the Welland corridor.
The St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corporation is a not-for-profit corporation incorporated in 1998 under the Canada Marine Act. As part of our mandate, the SLSMC operates, manages and maintains the St. Lawrence Seaway, as well as marketing the entire Great Lakes—St. Lawrence corridor under the Hwy H2O brand. Prior to commercialization in 1998, the Canadian portion of the seaway was operated as a federal Crown corporation. The Canadian government maintains ownership of the assets, which we operate on its behalf.
The St. Lawrence Seaway is a binational operation with 13 Canadian locks operated by the SLSMC and two U.S. locks managed by the Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation, a U.S. government entity. Our mission statement captures who we are. We serve our customers by passing ships through a safe, secure and reliable waterway system, in a cost-effective, efficient, and environmentally and socially responsible manner, to deliver value to the North American economy.
The Great Lakes—St. Lawrence corridor is a marine highway that extends from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the Great Lakes, serving as a trade route to the heart of the continent. The eight states and two provinces that border the Great Lakes—St. Lawrence corridor constitute the world's third-largest economy. Just as a point of interest, within an eight-hour drive of the Great Lakes there are 150 million people, so there's access to a very sizeable market.
Since the seaway was incorporated in 1959, over 2.9 billion tonnes of cargo has moved through the waterway. We enable trade with more than 50 nations overseas globally. If we take a look at the entire waterway, from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the head of Lake Superior, cargo moving over the waterway supports 329,000 jobs and $60 billion of economic activity in Canada and the U.S., split roughly fifty-fifty between the two countries.
Over the past 20 years, over $1 billion has been invested in asset renewal in the seaway, of which 60% has been spent in the Niagara region, generating tremendous economic activity when all spinoffs are taken into account. The recently updated Martin economic study points out that cargo moving through the Welland Canal supports approximately 50,000 jobs in Ontario, many of which are found in the Golden Horseshoe area.
Since it was established in 1998, the SLSMC has brought about substantial advancements in our operations and has met the objectives set for us by the government and our users. Thanks to the investments in asset renewal, the seaway consistently realizes a level of system availability exceeding 99%. We are a free-flow system. Our customers do not make appointments, so system availability is critical to the ongoing operation of our system.
We recently completed our modernization program, which includes hands-free mooring and remote operation of locks from our centralized operation centres. This represents the greatest advancement in seaway operations since their inception in 1959. Lock transits have become faster and safer, and the end result is that we are realizing reduced operating costs and substantially improved productivity, leading to a more competitive system. For our role in developing hands-free mooring, in 2015 we were awarded the Promising Innovation in Transport Award, sponsored by the International Transport Forum.
We've also optimized the length of our navigation system, so over the last 20 years, we've brought the navigation season to 280-plus days, and we're continually striving to lengthen it as we move forward.
We enabled the transit of a broad range of commodities, including grain, iron ore, coal, salt, potash, petroleum, liquid bulk, iron and steel, and general cargo. Last year, we handled 38.3 million tonnes of cargo, which was an increase of 9% compared to the amounts in 2016.
Under the Hwy H2O brand, we have a number of market initiatives enlisting our industry stakeholders, so we very much play a catalyst role in bringing all of them together in a coordinated effort to promote the waterway.
We offer incentive programs and have brought into the system some $37 million in new business over the last 11 years. Revenues cover our operating costs and now consistently provide a surplus, which contributes toward investments in asset renewal. This year, we're projecting cargo to be up over last year, where we should be in the $40-million range, so we continue to see positive results. However, we would say that continuing discussions on NAFTA, tariffs and trade wars make for a level of uncertainty in forecasting cargo.
From a real estate perspective, we manage the lands adjacent to the seaway on behalf of the Government of Canada. The market development team continues to bring operators and investors together to best utilize the real estate and facilities, including landholdings on the Welland Canal, to generate economic growth and employment opportunities.
Two recent examples of how this has worked are the redevelopment of the Port Weller dry docks, which provides employment and economic benefit to the region, and the expansion of wharf 12 in Port Colborne, which now facilitates container handling and allows access into the U.S. northeast market. Those were two very critical initiatives for us, working with our tenants and stakeholders. These two initiatives have brought 34 full-time jobs and 100 full-time seasonal jobs to the local Niagara economy.
With our capacity to double the amount of cargo moving through our locks and channels, we present Canadians with a means of supporting ambitious economic growth and job creation in what we consider to be a very sustainable manner.
I hope that today we've been able to show you how the seaway contributes to a strong national and international trade corridor. We strive to provide a cost-efficient trading route and are using innovative technology to become more competitive and to ensure the waterway's sustainability over the long term.
Thank you.
