{"id":6042,"date":"2019-05-24T13:30:31","date_gmt":"2019-05-24T13:30:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aboriginalbusinessmagazine.com\/?p=6042"},"modified":"2019-05-24T13:30:31","modified_gmt":"2019-05-24T13:30:31","slug":"cross-canada-corridor-concept-getting-dusted-off-ahead-of-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aboriginalbusinessmagazine.com\/?p=6042","title":{"rendered":"Cross Canada corridor concept getting dusted off ahead of election"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Andy Blatchford<\/p>\n

THE CANADIAN PRESS<\/p>\n

OTTAWA- The notion of a pan-Canadian corridor dedicated to rail, power lines and pipelines has been around for at least half a century but it looks like it’s about to get a big publicity boost.<\/p>\n

Last week, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer used a major pre-election policy speech to dust off a similar idea. Scheer promised, if he wins October’s election, that he would to work towards establishing a cross-country “energy corridor.”<\/p>\n

He said planning for the route would be done up front, in consultation with provinces and Indigenous communities. A right-of-way would make it easier to lower environmental assessment costs, improve certainty for investors and increase the chances more projects will be built, Scheer said.<\/p>\n

Interest in a coast-to-coast corridor has picked up in recent years. Energy infrastructure proposals have failed to secure approval due to tough regulatory processes and community concerns over environmental impacts.<\/p>\n

For instance, the shortage of pipeline capacity out of oil-rich Alberta has created a bottleneck that’s harmed both the provincial and national economies. Sellers have had to sell at deep discounts because there simply isn’t the transportation capacity to get oil to willing buyers.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In the last few years, a few academics and senators have recommended the federal government give the corridor concept a serious look, even though making it happen would be a big, multi-jurisdictional undertaking.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Scheer’s pitch appears to have drawn inspiration from a 2016 University of Calgary paper that offered possible solutions through a northern corridor for transportation and infrastructure.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Kent Fellows, who co-authored the report, said the right-of-way could be used for roads, rail, pipelines, electricity transmission lines and telecommunications. The study’s proposed 7,000-kilometre corridor would also serve communities well north of the existing east-west routes that run closer to the U.S. border. In concept, a main line and offshoots would connect ports in northern British Columbia and the Northwest Territories to Churchill, Man., eastern Quebec and Labrador.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

     <\/p>\n

    The hurdles of consultations and regulatory oversight for new projects are significant, Fellows said.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    “Those regulations are definitely there for a reason, but we were trying to come up with a better model,” he said.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Dedicated infrastructure corridors have had success in other jurisdictions, including Europe and Australia, Fellows said.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Pipelines are very good at generating economic benefits at both ends of the line, and not so much in the middle _ but roads, rail, electricity and telecom can help people all along the route, Fellows said.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    “You might not make everyone 100-per-cent happy, but the goal is to try to make everyone a little bit happier than they are now,”<\/p>\n

    said Fellows, who co-wrote the paper with Andrei Sulzenko.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    The creation of a corridor could take decades, or even half a century, and a “back of the envelope” calculation estimates it could cost something like $100 billion, Fellows said.<\/p>\n

    The study caught the attention of a Senate committee, which took a closer look at the concept in 2016 and 2017.<\/p>\n

    In a 2017 report of its own, the committee called the corridor idea a “visionary, future-oriented infrastructure initiative” that would create significant economic opportunities for Canada and help develop northern regions.<\/p>\n

    “Because an initiative of this scale and scope would likely take decades to complete, the federal government, on a priority basis , should ensure that a feasibility study on the proposed northern corridor is undertaken,” said the committee report.<\/p>\n

    Senators recommended the government dedicate up to $5 million to the University of Calgary to support further research into the corridor.<\/p>\n

    The committee report noted how a 1971 report by Richard Rohmer, an air-force veteran of D-Day who became a prominent land-use lawyer with the ear of governor general Roland Michener, proposed the development of a “mid-Canada” corridor, recommending federal, provincial and territorial governments make it an urgent priority.<\/p>\n

    Rohmer imagined a massive transportation network for goods and people could turn communities such as Flin Flon, Whitehorse and High Level into major new urban centres.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    The report was presented then-prime minister Pierre Trudeau but the committee said his government never moved forward on the idea.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Christopher Ragan, a McGill University professor, said he recalls the University of Calgary corridor study and he thinks it’s “quite a striking idea” that makes a lot of sense.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Ragan, who served on federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau’s economic advisory panel, said he’s glad Scheer has taken up the concept of a corridor and bringing it to the public’s attention as a serious idea.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    On climate change, Ragan said the country will want to find ways to get through tough approval processes to run more east-west energy grids. For example, he said clean electricity could move from British Columbia, Quebec and Manitoba into Alberta, Saskatchewan and parts of Ontario to help displace fossil-fuel generation.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Ragan is also head of the Ecofiscal Commission, a group of academics focused on economic and environmental solutions.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    “I don’t frankly care whether it’s an old idea or a new idea, but it is a new idea in terms of a real-world, policy practical discussion … It’s good that you actually have politicians starting to talk about this.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    By Andy Blatchford THE CANADIAN PRESS OTTAWA- The notion of a pan-Canadian corridor dedicated to rail, power lines and pipelines has been around for at least half a century but it looks like it’s about to get a big publicity boost. 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