Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Colleagues, thanks for the invitation.
Canada, as you know, is a big country, a huge country, so an efficient and reliable network of roads is critical. From coast to coast to coast, roads are part of how we get goods and people where they need to go safely and quickly. Taking care of these roads and keeping them strong and in good repair is important. Also, expanding them when necessary is equally important.
Let's be clear: most Canadian roads are under provincial, territorial or municipal jurisdiction. That means that those levels of government are mainly responsible for activities such as the planning, design, construction, operation, maintenance and funding of the road system. Transport Canada has long funded numerous road infrastructure projects and will continue to do so.
By far, the biggest source of such funding is the national trade corridors fund, or NTCF.
You guys know it quite well. Since its launch in 2017, the NTCF has provided over $4.1 billion for 213 infrastructure projects across Canada, which—this is very important to mention—includes over $1 billion for 42 road projects. These projects are designed to help improve our national supply chain, making it smoother, more efficient and more robust. It's there to ensure that goods and raw materials get where they need to be when Canadians need them.
Here are some examples.
We're investing $135 million to upgrade the Klondike highway corridor in the Yukon. This project includes rebuilding 110 kilometres of road, along with new bridges and EV charging stations.
We also provided over $70 million to help the City of Edmonton improve the crossing at 58th Street and help CP Railway increase safety and improve traffic flow. The project will build a new overpass over the existing railway crossing, two new traffic lanes and a realigned intersection at 82nd Avenue and 58th Avenue.
In Nova Scotia, we completed the twinning project for Highway 104. This included twinning and upgrading 28 kilometres of existing highway and building an entirely new one-kilometre, four-lane realignment of the highway to facilitate container and truck traffic in that corridor.
We have earmarked $45.9 million to improve access to the Port of Montreal by extending Boulevard de l'Assomption between Rue Notre-Dame and Avenue Pierre-De-Coubertin. We will also create a road link between the port and the Trans-Canada Highway. Transport Canada has provided $50 million from the national trade corridors fund for another project in Montreal that, among other things, will help improve the road system around Mirabel airport and facilitate access to a new loading bridge.
In B.C., we're providing $12.2 million at the Fraser Surrey Port Lands to improve the fluidity and safety of road and rail traffic operations.
That is just a small sample of NTCF projects across the country involving roads. With this program, we have made investments in important projects across the country.
I'm very pleased to see that the Auditor General acknowledged, in the report she released a few days ago, that the national trade corridors fund is working very well. Incidentally, I'd like to say that Transport Canada is also responsible for the Outaouais Road Agreement, the purpose of which is to enhance overall efficiency and promote safety while encouraging regional and industrial development and tourism in the National Capital Region.
Incidentally, last December I was pleased to announce a joint $70.4 million investment under that program to support numerous road projects around Gatineau on roads that you no doubt use from time to time.
In closing, I'll come back to what I said earlier: Although jurisdiction for most of our country's highways and roads falls to municipalities, territories or provinces, there's still an important role for the federal government to play, and we will play that role.
Thank you very much.
