Good morning. Thank you very much for inviting the Atlantic Chamber of Commerce, on behalf of its 93 member chambers of commerce across the region, to participate in these consultations on the development of a Canadian transportation strategy.
As an introduction, the Atlantic chamber is the oldest and largest accredited business organization in Atlantic Canada and strives to influence the local environment to create economic growth and prosperity for its citizens, including the more than 16,000 businesses and professionals who are members of chambers in communities across the region.
Our mission, experiences and extended network have provided the Atlantic chamber with a broad perspective on issues affecting our economy. In the vein of transportation, in fact, the Atlantic chamber has proposed three resolutions on transportation policy to the Canadian chamber policy debates over the last four years.
Our understanding is that in this limited time we would try to provide the committee with an overview of infrastructure and regulatory challenges that face Atlantic Canada and that if addressed would contribute to increased safety and efficiency and minimize the harm to the environment. Specifically, I'd like to raise issues in a couple of areas.
Number one is how we could improve infrastructure. In terms of infrastructure investments that would have a measurable positive influence on the movement of goods and people from Atlantic Canada to central Canada, the twinning of Route 185 between Rivière-du-Loup and Saint-Louis-du-Ha! Ha! is one of the most pressing. Accelerating the phased approach to the construction of this highway, which began in 2005 and is not slated to be finished until 2025, is critical in providing the ability to operate more efficient long combination vehicles. The impacts of this current bottleneck are increased costs, increased carbon emissions, driver shortages and accidents.
Atlantic Canada also suffers from a lack of pipeline access to domestic supplies of oil and gas. The public demise of energy east due to regulatory challenges makes it clear that Canada needs to resolve the impasse in building pipeline transportation. Our region is currently forced to access energy supplies via foreign purchases or the less safe and less environmentally safe polluting option of rail transportation. A national transportation strategy should include a vision of the necessary infrastructure to move domestic resources to Canadian and international markets.
Atlantic Canada's port facilities are also an enormous asset for communities both large and small. Situated on international trade routes, our ports have the potential to shorten transatlantic marine routes by a whole day, but this potential is dependent on the availability of adequate capacity and efficient intermodal services. Investments to increase handling capacity and efficient access to port facilities will enhance the attractiveness of our ports to international carriers. Equally, small harbour port facilities warrant attention in this strategy, as they provide support to multi-million dollar fisheries that contribute to the region and individual communities.
While much of the discussion regarding transportation strategy tends to focus on infrastructure that's missing, it can't be overemphasized that the federal and provincial governments need to urgently address the growing maintenance deficit of existing infrastructure. This applies equally to secondary roads, as well as primary; our secondary roads are often unable to handle movement of agricultural and resource products to market.
We're also very concerned about the effects of climate change in Atlantic Canada. As a region with more than 33,000 kilometres of coastline, Atlantic Canada will be heavily impacted by the effects of more frequent extreme weather events, rising sea levels and flooding.
Nowhere is this critical infrastructure more at risk than on the Isthmus of Chignecto, the land bridge between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. The Trans-Canada Highway, which transports an estimated $50 million in goods per day, is protected by a combination of centuries-old dikes and, by default, the class I railbed that is inspected and maintained by the private sector. All of this infrastructure is vulnerable to overtopping in the event of a combination of extreme tides and weather, a scenario where Nova Scotia and Newfoundland would effectively be cut off from the rest of Canada.
There were also stretches of the Trans-Canada Highway near Jemseg, New Brunswick, that were closed during the spring thaws of this year and last. These closures forced the diversion of truck traffic through Saint John, adding 100 kilometres to the distance to traverse New Brunswick.