Details of $591-million federal investment in Asia Pacific Gateway corridor scheme to be revealed
William Boei
Sun
The federal government is expected to put its money where its mouth is today after again declaring support Tuesday for B.C.’s Pacific Gateway strategy.
The Conservative government has promised $591 million over eight years in support of the Gateway plan, which aims to make B.C. the major corridor for trade between Asia — especially China — and North America.
“We want to capture the [Asian] trade of the North American heartland,” federal Transportation Minister Lawrence Cannon told the Vancouver Board of Trade Tuesday.
“Canada’s new government will in the very near future provide further details about the $591 million investment in the Asia Pacific Gateway corridor initiative,” Cannon said.
In an interview later, he would only say that an announcement would follow shortly.
It’s likely to come today, when Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Cannon and David Emerson, the federal minister for the Pacific Gateway strategy, will join B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell for an announcement.
B.C. Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon said earlier he expected Harper to announce support on his B.C. trip for the $800-million South Fraser Perimeter Road, which will link Deltaport and Fraser River port and industrial areas to the Trans-Canada Highway east of the Port Mann Bridge.
B.C. has asked Ottawa for $365 million for the new truck route. Falcon is also hoping Ottawa will kick in $90 million for a new $400-million Pitt River bridge, part of the related North Fraser Perimeter Road. That money was promised by the previous Liberal federal government, but has not been endorsed yet by Harper’s Conservatives.
Both roads are part of the province’s Gateway Program, a $3-billion road- and bridge-building project.
Cannon told the board of trade that “Vancouver stands on the threshold of a new era of prestige, achievement and economic growth. I believe that it could become one of the great cities of our time.”
He also promised that the Conservatives will take steps to restore Vancouver’s quality of life.
The city’s reputation for livability has been tarnished recently by air-quality problems, long waits for medical procedures and unsafe streets, Cannon said. The federal Liberals had tried to “talk the problem away,” but the Conservatives “feel a great need to act.”
Also Tuesday, Cannon took in a photo opportunity with TransLink officials and some of the regional transportation authority’s new buses. TransLink has so far received $76 million in federal fuel-tax dollars in a revenue-sharing agreement and is using the money to help pay for several bus orders.
GATEWAY SUPPORT
Lawrence Cannon, federal transportation minister, told the Vancouver Board of Trade on Tuesday, the Conservative government also wants ‘to capture the [Asian] trade of the North American heartland.’
© The Vancouver Sun 2006
