Policy & Positions Manual
Policy Priority Area - Transportation
Driving Economic Growth by Improving Infrastructure and Access to International Airports in British Columbia (2008)
There have been many fluctuations in the world’s economy recently, throughout which Canada’s economy has remained stable. Clement Gignac, of National Bank Financial, mentioned in January 2008, that Canada has the lowest Debt to GDP ratio of all the G7 countries, and that our economy will stay strong. The Western Canadian provinces are leading the growth with its resources in high demand, fostering influx from North America and abroad. Surpluses are high, jobs are in abundance, and the migration from East to Western Canada helps the economy and housing market continue to grow. The 2008 GDP forecasted growth for BC was 2.6%.
With a strong and stable economy comes recognition and interest from foreign investors in our province, which creates opportunities to host international events. This exposure in turn adds to growth which includes increased business travel, tourism, and immigration. Bringing the world to BC puts additional pressure on our airports to expand, in order to better support the expansions, and more efficient infrastructure to and from the airports is required. Improved infrastructure could provide safe, sustainable, and efficient transportation from the airports to move visitors, immigrants, cargo, goods and services to their final destinations, thereby strengthening tourism, the economy and the amenities for BC’s businesses and communities.
Lawrence Cannon, Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities said at an Annual National Conference in 2006 that, “Physical infrastructure is the basic building block of any economy – it supports everything, literally and figuratively. This is true for all countries, but even more so for Canada.”
We are a trading nation, so it is essential to have efficient ports, airports, and border infrastructure. To be competitive, we must be extra-efficient at moving things around. Consider just our trade relationship with the U.S., everyday, some 36,000 truck travel in both directions, and close to 1,500 flights, 300,000 people, and $1.6 billion in goods and services cross the Canada-U.S. border. The provincial and territorial governments have estimated the need for capital investment in transportation priorities alone over the next 10 years at close to $100 billion.
If we do not keep pace with the need to replace and renew our ageing infrastructure, our quality of life and our economic prosperity will suffer. We need to think about our infrastructure with real objectives, such as improving the quality of our environment. The financing arrangements for the Canada Line in BC, an 18.5 kilometre light rail line from central Richmond to the Vancouver International Airport and downtown Vancouver, has won two awards from Project Finance magazine, the 2005 North American Transport Deal of the Year, and the 2005 North American Infrastructure Deal of the Year.
The Government of Canada is the largest public partner in this project, with a contribution of $450 million. Other major public partners include the province of BC, Translink, and the city itself. In all, the public sector is contributing more than $1.2 billion of the $1.9 billion total cost of the project. Beyond winning awards, this project shows that P3’s can work in the Canadian light rail market. With the growing need for efficient, sustainable transportation in our cities, the line sets an important example for the future.
The Greater Vancouver area has seen a lot of growth in the last number of years, and addressing infrastructure needs to keep up with the growth, while reducing impact to the environment is important. Other cities and some smaller municipalities are also growing rapidly. Growth in smaller municipalities is partially due to immigration and emigration from larger urban centers, but also from other smaller municipalities. This growth puts pressure on these municipalities’ infrastructural needs. The smaller municipalities may not have the comparative local funding available that major urban centers do, but may still have immediate infrastructure needs spanning distances similar to major urban centers.
With local real-estate still more affordable than in Canada’s major urban centers, visitors often decide to stay or to invest in recreational properties and businesses. This has generated rapid growth to the region resulting in increased traffic congestion and infrastructure overloads. Many visitors’ final destinations are accessed by single lane rural roads and this increased traffic can incur high maintenance costs, traffic congestion and safety issues. Winter weather can be unpredictable in many municipalities and road maintenance, reliable transportation and safe roads are vital to transporting passengers safely and efficiently from airports to their final destinations.
Public transportation does not currently play a major role in bringing people to and from BC’s international airports, other than Vancouver International Airport. There are currently no regional bus systems to surrounding municipalities or to resort destinations. For investors to consider BC’s municipalities viable for investment, the infrastructure requirements from international airports need to keep up with the increase in passengers and the movement of cargo, goods and services. Failure to make significant progress towards bridging the infrastructure gap could prove costly in terms of congestion, unreliable supply lines and growing environmental problems, with all the implications for living standards and quality of life this entails.
Improvements for infrastructure surrounding international airports will vary from area to area, but could include: regional public transit systems featuring green busses, light rail systems and heavy rail systems and could also include road maintenance and upgrades. The transportation of passengers using transit systems benefits the environment and reduces traffic, and maintaining roads and modes of transportation adds to their safety and longevity.
For many visitors, airports are their first access to new destinations. Investors and industry will view infrastructures for shipping and local traffic, and ask if it is efficient and organized adequately to support the capital they are investing. They will be creating new jobs to run their businesses and need to know that the region is set up to handle the movement of services. Other considerations may be how to create less pollution when moving cargo, goods, services and people through an area.
To find answers to these and other issues related to infrastructure, and to save on capital cost investments needed for infrastructure improvements, it is important to first create a workable plan for airport infrastructure needs. A national plan that can be tailored to the unique local requirements of each international airport in our country could save time and funds for future airport infrastructure projects.
For airport infrastructure projects to be cost effective thorough groundwork is required and could include:
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Feasibility studies
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Actionable strategic plans
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Sustainable environmental plans
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Best practices
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Gathering available knowledge from successful infrastructure projects currently in place
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Research
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Long-term projections with work/management plans
The Chamber can be a catalyst by recommending that our province support long term economic growth by addressing current and future infrastructure needs in areas surrounding our international airports.
THE CHAMBER RECOMMENDS
That the Provincial Government work with the Federal Government to:
- allocate funds to develop a national strategic infrastructure plan that addresses safe, efficient and sustainable transportation requirements to passengers, cargo, goods and services moving to and from BC’s international airports;
- provide funding for infrastructure needs to connect international airports with municipalities that are experiencing and projecting a significant increase in visitors, emigrants and immigrants and where as a result, the municipalities are growing rapidly;
- provide funding for infrastructure needs to connect international airports with municipalities that are experiencing and projecting a significant increase in the movement of cargo, goods and services as a result of rapid growth to their municipalities; and
- facilitate municipalities with international airports that are experiencing and projecting significant growth in accessing infrastructure funding by working together with municipalities with international airports to identify their unique needs and to include those needs in effective strategic plans for their areas.
