Invest in transportation infrastructure that helps get goods to market.

What success looks like

Get Canadian goods to markets more quickly and increase exports, including natural resources, manufactured goods and agri-food products, by 30 per cent by 2025.

Government's narrative on progress

The Government of Canada established the $2 billion National Trade Corridors Fund (NTCF) to address urgent capacity constraints and freight bottlenecks at major ports of entry, and to better connect the rail and highway infrastructure that delivers economic growth across Canada. Investments through this fund will target congestion and inefficiencies at marine ports, as well as along the busiest rail and highway corridors. The Canada Infrastructure Bank will make at least $5 billion in additional funding available to address trade and transportation projects. The government is tracking transportation flows and will report publicly on how long it takes to get goods to market. The Government of Canada formally launched the first call for proposals under the NTCF on July 4, 2017. Eligible projects were invited to submit Comprehensive Project Proposals, and the government evaluated 177 complete project proposals, seeking a total of $7.5 billion in NTCF funding. More than $800 million in funding from the NTCF has been announced for 39 projects that will resolve bottlenecks across the country to support trade. To build on the success of the first national NTCF call for proposals, the government launched a second call for proposals on November 19, 2018 specifically targeting projects in Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. This call, which closes on March 29, 2019, will allocate funding from the $400 million envelope dedicated to addressing the unique transportation priorities in the territorial North. The new Export Diversification Strategy launched in the 2018 Fall Economic Statement announced the acceleration of the approximately $755 million in remaining NTCF funding over the next five years for projects that will strengthen ports and trade corridors to help diversify Canada’s trade with overseas markets. On January 15, 2019, Transport Canada launched a continuous NTCF call for proposals, for trade diversification projects, that will remain open until the remaining funding is committed. Eligible applicants are encouraged to submit expressions of interest for funding to support projects that will bolster export opportunities for Canadian businesses and help to diversify Canada’s overseas trade. To improve and expand infrastructure in the northern regions of Canada, Budget 2019 proposes to increase the allocation of the National Trade Corridors Fund to Arctic and northern regions by up to $400 million over eight years, starting in 2020–21, bringing the total allocation to these regions to $800 million. This will help build new roads and other vital connections to and between Arctic and northern communities.

Note: this is the government's own description, not an independent assessment.