Martin Ignasiak comments in the Calgary Herald on why—in the face of US tariffs—Canada should have had economic and trade corridors in place yesterday. Or, better yet, a decade ago.
Canadian political leaders are now endorsing the concept and Martin says, “It is long overdue . . . Having optionality to trade with other customers is obviously in Canada’s best interest.”
Martin has written on the issue of transportation corridors—and in a recent article for the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, he and co-author Heather Exner-Pirot argued that Parliament could restore investor confidence by passing an act declaring that certain “Trans-Canada corridors” are in the national interest to facilitate linear infrastructure, including transmission lines and pipelines.
Martin says it’s not for governments to determine whether proposed projects are economic, but they should engage in proper land-use planning. Proponents should know where such infrastructure is allowed to go and that a significant number of regulatory hurdles have been dealt with already.
“It might be that in two months, no one is talking about tariffs and trade wars anymore, but that doesn’t mean we won’t be talking about them again in two years or four years or six years,” Martin added.
“This isn’t rocket science. It’s land-use planning and being strategic . . . People have woken up to the fact that we can’t depend on other countries for sovereignty or our economic prosperity. And so we’ve got to get going on this.”
Bennett Jones