Yesterday’s Throne Speech emphasized that the world has shifted and is more uncertain but that it is also a time of opportunity to reforge Canada’s economic and political relationships and embark on economic nation building that could be the largest transformation of the Canadian economy since WWII. There was a commitment to major national infrastructure projects as well a movement to remove federal barriers to internal trade to enhance the Canadian economic union. However, the details of what is going to be done remain a work in progress and that suggests that there are still opportunities to put forth new ideas. If Canada is going to embark on a period of building a larger internal economy and putting in place national infrastructure projects, attention needs to be paid to the transportation links that knit the economy together - in particular, the road network.
The highway and road transport network in Canada has been key in facilitating our trade and commerce particularly with respect to the United States. Truck transportation accounts for nearly half of the Canadian exports shipped to the United States and nearly 70 percent of the goods imported from the United States. The east west dimension of Canadian internal trade should also not be underestimated when examining the role of road transport in facilitating the Canadian Economic Union. For example, it has been noted that “$528 billions of goods and services moved across provincial and territorial borders in 2022—equal to 18.8% of Canada's gross domestic product. Furthermore, one-third of Canadian businesses participated in internal trade by buying or selling goods across provincial and territorial borders in 2023.”
If there is to be more east-west internal trade within Canada as trade barriers are removed, it stands to reason that much of this commerce will flow through the Highway 11-17 corridors in northern Ontario. However, the roads here are already severely stressed by the post pandemic increases in transport trucks and associated accidents. According to the OPP, 60 percent of fatal crashes in Northwestern Ontario alone (21 fatalities) in 2024 involved transport trucks. This is not surprising given the increase in truck volume as well as the two-lane nature of much of the highway system in northern Ontario. While there are more passing lanes in place than 20 years ago, in many respects little has changed in what is a vital zone of national transit. As noted in a much earlier pontification on this topic:
“Canada is the largest developed country in the world without a system of fully grade-separated roadways that allow uninterrupted traffic flow between its major urban centres. The key roadblocks include the two-lane stretches from the Manitoba border to Sudbury and much of the route between the Alberta border and Kamloops. Most importantly, the Trans- Canada is still a two-lane stretch through the vital zone of transit through northwestern Ontario connecting the East with the West from the Manitoba border to Sudbury, leaving the nation's east-west flow of personal and commercial traffic subject to the whims of an errant moose. The slow travel times and disruptions make cutting through the United States an attractive option for east-west travellers, despite the absence of an Interstate route along the border, but U.S. border crossing formalities have also made this more difficult and time-consuming.”
If U.S. border issues were a concern two decades ago, they are even more significant now. In improving the east-west highway link through northern Ontario, there are definite challenges of cost rooted in both distance and geography but if the Europeans can tunnel through mountains to build their autobahns and autostradas, then surely, we can deal with rocks, trees and muskeg. There are two key highways – Highway 11 which can be termed the northern route and Highway 17 which can be term the southern route though both come together as 11-17 from Nipigon to Shabaqua. While a portion of the stretch between Nipigon and Thunder Bay is being four-laned, after nearly 20 years the four-lane project here is still not complete. Moreover, it remains that there is a bottleneck at Nipigon given the national highway system comes to one choke point at the Nipigon Bridge which is subject to disruptions.
What should a national project to improve the Trans-Canada through northern Ontario look like? Here is my suggestion. Highway 11 from North Bay to Nipigon should be four-laned. The 400 from Barrie to Sudbury is nearly completely four-laned. After Sudbury, constructing four lanes on highway 17 is more problematic for several reasons but Highway 17 from Sudbury through to Sault Ste. Marie to Nipigon should be subject to 2+1 upgrading – essentially a three-lane highway with a centre passing lane that alternates every two to five kilometers.
While the Ontario government is planning to do this on Highway 11 north of North Bay, the entire stretch of Highway 17 from Sudbury to Nipigon should be done this way. Highway 11-17 from Nipigon to Shabaqua should be four-laned. Highway 17 from Shabaqua to the Manitoba border should be four-laned. And, if more resilience is desired given the potential bottleneck at the Nipigon bridge, thought should be given to an additional crossing over the Nipigon River between MacDiarmid and Nipigon that would consist of a 2+1 highway to Upsala. There is also the issue of Highway 11 past Shabaqua that ends in a U.S. border crossing leaving only one major highway crossing between Manitoba and Ontario that may need to also be explored. However, a bottleneck on flat land is in somewhat of a different league than one over a water crossing.
Of course, the element of cost here is paramount. Estimates of the cost per kilometer for 2016 for northern Ontario alone suggest a range between $350,000 and $550,000 per kilometre. One suspects that in the wake of the pandemic like everything else, costs have grown substantially. However, we have both a Prime Minister who wants to nation build as well as strengthen the Canadian economic union and facilitate more internal trade as well as an Ontario Premier who wants to invest in nation building projects that includes a tunnel under the 401 and a deep water port on James Bay – not exactly cheap projects. The transport infrastructure for a stronger east-west commercial union is necessary and yet has been strangely missing from both the national and provincial discourse.
Nevertheless, it is somewhat refreshing to have a government that seems ready to embark on aspects of sovereign reconstruction (after a decade of what I suppose can then be termed sovereign deconstruction). However, when to comes to sovereignty and enhancing our national economic space, words are not enough. There will need to be action and that action will require investing in transportation infrastructure that enhances Canada’s economic space as an economic union. Improved highway links through Northern Ontario are key to doing this and a start would be our northern Ontario federal and provincial MPs and MPPs recognizing this and making the case.