Canada’s Ferries Call for Infrastructure Investment

Posted by Eric Haun April 6, 2015

Industry Minister James Moore told CTV’s Question Period, yesterday, that Canadians will soon be seeing “very large-scale [infrastructure] announcements in every part of the country.” Moore went on to say that these investments will benefit Canadians and increase productivity.

Responsible for moving more than 55 million people, 19 million vehicles and millions of tons of goods annually, Canada’s ferries are a pivotal component of the nation’s infrastructure system, the Canadian Ferry Operators Association (CFOA) said, adding that further investments in ferry infrastructure would benefit productivity and Canadians.

Ferry services are essential to many Canadians, including:

Remote Communities. For some isolated regions, ferries are the only means for transporting goods and people and accessing emergency medical services.
Public Transit. Many ferries in Canada are a component of public transit systems in municipalities, bringing people to work and students to school daily.
Job Creation. Ferry operators employ more than 9,000 people across the country. They plan to invest more than $1 billion to renew/upgrade their fleets over the next 5 years, creating even more jobs.

According to the CFOA, the government’s New Building Canada Plan largely ignores the ferry sector.

The CFOA is thus calling on the government to make investments in the ferry sector and amend the criteria of the New Building Canada Plan to allow projects that combine the transportation of goods and passengers to be eligible for funding.