Government of Canada actions
In 2020, Transport Canada continued to implement major key initiatives. This included measures under the national Oceans Protection Plan to protect Canada’s coasts for future generations, and the National Trade Corridors Fund, aimed at strengthening and increasing the efficiency of transportation corridors within Canada and to international markets. In 2020, under the National Trade Corridors Fund, Transport Canada committed nearly all of the fund’s initial $1.9 billion allocation to 89 transportation infrastructure projects across the country, leveraging more than $3.9 billion in total investments by all public and private sector partners. To date, strategic investments have been made to improve the fluidity of goods movements in all 4 regional transportation systems.
Efforts to increase the safety and security of the transportation system are of utmost importance. In August 2019, amendments the Navigation Protection Act, which restored lost protections for navigable waters and incorporated modern safeguards came into force. In the air sector, Transport Canada has continued their independent review of the Boeing 737 MAX accidents, while working extensively with the US, domestic, and international partners on implementing additional safety measures. Regarding rail safety, the Minister of Transport announced the publication of the final Locomotive Voice and Video Recorder Regulations that specify the technical requirements for rail companies to install these devices on board their locomotives.
The Government of Canada remained committed to addressing the environmental impacts of transportation. Canada continues to support the mandate of the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA), and throughout 2020 worked on newly proposed, broader regulations that embed the carbon offsetting obligations of CORSIA into Canadian law. In addition, the Government of Canada continued to take action to accelerate zero-emission vehicle adoption and make progress towards the federal zero-emission vehicles targets of 10% of new light-duty vehicle sales by 2025, 30% by 2030 and 100% by 2040.
Transportation volumes and performance
2020 brought unprecedented challenges to the transportation system including rail blockades, a pandemic, and a labour dispute at one of Canada’s major ports. Despite these challenges, the system was resilient and was able to swiftly recover and adjust to spike in demand as well as new safety protocols and operational procedures. By the end of the year, freight volume was back to 2019 levels in some regions of the country and for some modes.
Rail traffic decreased 4% from 2019, but recovered lost volumes over the summer and the fall allowing for a partial recovery. Petroleum and motor vehicle products declined considerably, while coal shipments dropped due to the pandemic and long term trends of phasing out coal fired power plants. Despite the global pandemic, total container traffic handled at West coast ports remained steady compared to 2019.
The Port of Vancouver recorded an increase in total container volumes (+2.0%), while volumes at the Port of Prince Rupert increased by 9%. Truck border crossings between Canada and the US decreased compared to the previous year by more than 7%. Air cargo traffic at major airports saw an overall decline, however, the import of pharmaceuticals and textiles saw large increases.
In 2020, all modes of passenger transportation faced challenges leading to reductions of passenger flows. The pandemic, and subsequent restrictions placed to limit its spread, have altered travel patterns. Air transportation was the most impacted sector, along with the cruise industry which suffered from a ban in 2020.
Environment, safety and security
From 2005 to 2018, greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector increased by 16% to 186 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e). Emissions from road transportation, which represents 84% of total transportation sector emissions, and 21% of Canada’s total greenhouse gas emissions, have increased by 19% from over this same period, largely due to an increase in the number of vehicles on the road, a shift towards personal light trucks and greater reliance on medium- and heavy-duty trucks.
However, there have been some notable improvements in the sector. For instance, the emissions intensity of Canadian air carriers has decreased by 18% between 2008 and 2018. Moreover, the rail sector’s growth in emissions was contained to 3% while their freight traffic increased by 19% over the 2011-2017 period.
The Government of Canada released its Strengthened Climate Plan, A Healthy Environment and a Healthy Economy, in December 2020. This plan announced a number of concrete actions and commitments the Government will pursue in order to meet and exceed its 2030 Paris Agreement emissions reduction target and move to a prosperous net-zero emissions future by 2050. In addition to broader regulatory measures such as carbon pollution pricing and new clean fuel regulations, which will encourage low carbon choices throughout the economy, the plan includes a suite of new commitments to reduce emissions from the transportation sector and accelerate new clean transportation technology deployment across all modes.
Canada continues to have one of the safest and most secure transportation systems in the world. Road casualty collisions decreased steadily over the last ten years to another low in 2018, even as more vehicles were on the road. In marine transportation, the number of accidents involving at least 1 Canadian-registered vessel was significantly lower than the ten-year average, similarly, the number of aviation accidents was down 28% from the ten-year average. The number of railway accidents was down 23.2% from 2019.