Key advantages which characterizes
the Corridor:
- It is the closest North America
west coast gateway to Asia-Pacific markets.
- It has a 1
to 2 day sailing advantage over other west coast ports.
- It
has three safe deep water harbours - Prince Rupert, Kitimat, Stewart,
that presently ship billions of dollars of Canadian product around the
world.
- It provides the shortest sea/land transportation
corridor between the growing North American Heartland - Edmonton,
Winnipeg, Minneapolis, Chicago and Asia-Pacific markets.
- It
provides cost-effective and efficient access to modern, state-of-art
industrial, commercial, transport and agricultural facilities located
throughout western and northern Canada.
- It presently
has full infrastructure capability that is under utilized: road, rail,
and air; trucking transport service and choices of international ports:
Prince Rupert, Kitimat and Stewart. It is also an underdeveloped global
air cargo route.
- It requires minimal additional
infrastructure to attain large capacity rail increases. East of Prince
George, Alberta/BC rail traffic could be increased by 20% to 14 - 15
trains per day with no additional infrastructure investment and could be
doubled with the installation of a signaling system. West of Prince
George, Alberta/BC rail traffic could be doubled to 24 trains per day
with only limited incremental infrastructure improvements.
- It
is connected to the premiere rail system in North America. CN Rail's
purchase of Illinois Central and its connections create the first
north-south-east-west NAFTA Corridor from BC's north coast to all major
distributions centres in North America.
- It provides
one-stop shopping for NAFTA rail service inter provincial and interstate
highway coverage via Canadian transport hub at Winnipeg and American
transportation hub at Chicago.
- It is one of the only
two western Canadian transportation corridors - the other terminates at
the 49th parallel in BC's highly populated lower mainland. Congestion
and capacity issues on southern corridor roads, rail, air, and marine
terminals are making a case for greater time/distance performance ratios
via Northwest Corridor.
- It has 24 hour, 365 days of
the year access and is less impeded by annual road closures, significant
weather events, avalanches, and urban related traffic congestion.
- It
physically connects the Northwest Corridor capitals - Edmonton,
Saskatoon, Yellowknife, Whitehorse and BC's "Northern Capital" Prince
George - helping to promote trade among them.
- It is a
key transportation corridor connecting tourists with some of North
America's largest national and provincial parks.
- Its'
Universities and Colleges - University of Northern British Columbia,
College of New Caledonia, Northwest Community College, Grande Prairie
Regional College, Fairview College, Athabasca University, and Keyano
College, complemented by the University of Alberta, Northern Institute
of Applied Technology (NAIT), Lakeland College and Red Deer College have
established the Northwest transportation and Trade Corridor as the
"Smart" corridor.
The Northwest Transportation and Trade
Corridor Capability Report, by highlighting these characteristics,
illustrates the prominent opportunities associated with the Corridor's
transportation, tourism, and industrial and economic development.
Further, the report's review of the Corridor's comparative advantages,
helps form the basis upon which a strategy can be prepared for the
Corridor to complete effectively with southern corridors and ports.
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