Transportation in Canada Canada is a country of vast distances and a small domestic market. It is one of the world's great trading nations, exporting more than 40 percent of what we produce - from telecommunications equipment and automobiles to sulphur and pulp and paper. We are fortunate to have a huge resource base, but our economy is increasingly knowledge intensive, with global players in industry such as telecommunication, transportation equipment, biomedical and financial services. Our products and services must compete in a global economy and the cost, efficiency, reliability and comprehensiveness of our transportation network is vital. Take bulk commodities, for example.
Transportation can be the greatest single factor affecting the delivered price.
It accounts for as much as half the delivered price of coal sold to a Japanese buyer. For their part, the knowledge-based workers of our telecommunication and biomedical industry compete globally and need good and frequent access to foreign markets. Increasingly our transportation system has to compete on a continental basis. Trade with the United States has been growing at more than 10 percent per year. Canadian producers compete with American producers in the markets created by the North American Free Trade Agreement.