Thank you, Mr. Chair.
It's a pleasure to be here, albeit virtually.
Mr. Chair, I will be supporting the amendment that Mr. Barsalou-Duval has put on the floor.
I do want to speak a bit, as I have the floor, about the integration of our multimodal networks across the country. What I have to say from the onset is that, as we move forward, it's all in the planning. We have to recognize that we have to have a sound planning process in place to actually embark on the capital investments that we're going to make.
What I mean by that, Mr. Chairman, is that it's no different from a community's strategic plan. From there, the next layer is establishing an official plan for what goes where. Thirdly is establishing the secondary plan to ensure that the capacity that's needed within the official plan is met. Obviously, the last part is who's going to pay for it and where that money is going to come from—whether it comes from development charges, different levels of government or even the private sector in terms, if leveraging would be appropriate. That would be a direction that any local level of government would embark on, with the help of other levels of government and the private sector.
A perfect example of that is here in my riding, in the city of Welland. We had a historic, traditional roadway that actually connected part of Welland from the east to the west in Dain City. We had a bridge, which was once federally owned along the old canal on the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Welland Canal, go down.
That bridge went down and we then had to, under the official plan with growth happening there—quite a bit of growth, I might add—identify new housing that was being built. The secondary planning obviously identified the water, sewer and road network that would have to be maintained. With the bridge gone, it obviously wasn't going to be maintained.
Therefore, the city embarked on working with me and many others—including the private sector, I might add—to re-establish the bridge. Of course with that, as I said earlier, is the need to finance it. In the private sector, it was the developer that added growth to that part of the city. We were able to bring in $2.6 million from the federal level of government to leverage the money of the city and the private sector.
That's just an example of how the federal government works to strengthen our transportation networks. I have to say that, one, it was based on good solid planning, and two, it's an approach that, I might add, the Conservatives don't always nurture. It's an approach that actually works with everybody on all levels of government and of course the private sector.
Mr. Muys touched on it a bit. I want to touch on it a bit deeper because I'm very intimately involved in the establishment of a very solid multimodal network here in southern Ontario. Niagara's flagship economy depends on that network and is continuing to work with stakeholders and partners to strengthen that network.
Niagara is Canada's canal corridor region, with the Welland Canal running right down the middle of it. With that canal, we've become somewhat of an anomaly to be a very strategic trade corridor. We are a hub for one of Canada's most robust trade corridors because of the multimodal network that we've established here. The anchor to that—no pun intended—is the Welland Canal.
As we've become stronger and our partnerships have grown, the economy has grown. Many people have now been a part of that partnership—not just in Niagara, but in all of southern Ontario, including Hamilton. One of our biggest partners is the Hamilton Oshawa Port Authority. They've now moved to Niagara because they've maxed out of land availability in Hamilton.
We're working with Munro airport, Rungeling airport, the Niagara District Airport, Pearson, Niagara Falls, New York airport and Buffalo airport, CP and CN Rail—main line and short line—and GIO, which is our short line operator.
Of course, we're working with partners that are water related. We're also working with land-related partners, with the BMI Group, which has become a major investor within the Thorold multimodal hub as part of the Niagara trade corridor, as well as with the Peace Bridge, which is the second largest in North America. It's the second-largest crossing in the town of Fort Erie. We're now including that within the overall trade corridor strategy.
You know, Niagara is where road meets water, rail and air. It's a strategic location within a one-day drive of over 44% of North America's annual income.
My point to all of that is, one, how important it is—as sometimes, most times, if not all times, the Conservatives fail to do—to work together: to ensure that we work together on the establishment of a plan, a strategy. Second is that we work together to implement and execute that strategy. Third, it's to recognize where those happen, where those strategic locations are. We have to recognize the connections between reliable transportation structures and, of course, national supply chain stability, to begin the efforts to formally recognize and integrate how factors such as water, rail and rural linkages affect travel: moving people, like we're embarking on with the planning of high frequency rail dedicated to a track to move people and a track to move commerce—trade.
As well, it's about the way we do business domestically and around the world, not just here in Canada. We also have to take into consideration having those same discussions in partnership with our binational partners on the U.S. side to integrate our supply chains more effectively by utilizing the transportation networks that we have and that, quite frankly, we can strengthen through the process of proper planning. An example of this network in action is the strategically located Asia-Pacific trade corridor, but as well, as I mentioned earlier, we have the Niagara port trade corridor and other strategic locations across the country.
Having worked tirelessly with financial and transportation partners since 2001 in my former life as a mayor, I've recognized and continue to recognize the need to work toward an up-to-date integrated transportation network and networks across the country. Frankly, that's one of the reasons why I ran in 2015: because I ran out of the capacity at the local level to do that. Being at the federal level now has given me the opportunity to expand that network—again, no pun intended—with our partners at the local level, having had experience in working at that level but also at the provincial and the federal levels and, once again, with the private sector.
I think it's incumbent, Mr. Chairman—and, yes, we can embark on the amendment that Mr. Barsalou-Duval brings forward—that we also recognize that there are many efforts being led by this government that will in fact work toward exactly what ultimately we're talking about today. I'll quote David Emerson from the CTA report back in 2015. It's to recognize the need to bring up to date and to strengthen a transportation system to ensure that Canada's overall global performance is strengthened by having that network—working with all of the partners—being brought up to date and being integrated in a multimodal fashion, but that is as well being driven by those regional hubs where manufacturing and production are happening and, quite frankly, which make up our supply chains.
That in fact is the real official plan in comparison to a community being dealt out. Of course, the secondary plan to that is the transportation network that would add capacity to run with fluidity, whether it's moving trade or people, and of course being streamlined within its logistic distribution as well as the data and digitalization that's expected to make it run even more effectively, and more in tune with the needs of those we're actually choosing, which are our residents as well as our business networks.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.