June 20, 2025 | Category: Published Articles

(Published in The Hill Times)

All three levels of government must play their part in building up Canada’s supply chains
We need strong and resilient supply chains more than ever. This requires coordinated action from all levels of government to reduce duplication, fast-track critical infrastructure, and ensure that projects in the national interest—like those in Milton and Montreal—aren’t indefinitely stalled by fragmented governance.

Public awareness of the importance of supply chains has grown since the pandemic, when everyone was educated on how interconnected the delivery of essential goods had become globally. But it’s not just a global phenomenon: it’s local, too. 

Think of a supply chain as a coordinated network that includes all the companies, facilities, and business activities involved in sourcing, developing, manufacturing, and delivering products. And it’s a chain: when something goes wrong in one link, everything is impacted.

In these unprecedented times of economic peril, Canadian firms are looking to shift the movement of goods East and West, away from the unpredictable southern market. Our transportation backbone—the roads, rail lines, warehouses, and terminals—needs to flex to handle increased capacity. So, how prepared are we to do that? And how much untapped capacity really exists today?

When I ask this question of senior leaders in trade transportation, the answer is “not much.” It is not for lack of effort or capital. So, what is the problem? Too often, it’s the inability to get timely approvals and overcome local opposition, even for projects that serve the national interest. To illustrate the point, let’s look at the tale from two cities: Milton, Ont., and Montreal.

Announced in 2015, the CN Milton Logistics Hub, originally expected to cost $250 million, is an intermodal facility still under construction in Milton, Ont. The project received federal government approvals in 2021, six years after the project was proposed by CN, following a rigorous and comprehensive permitting process resulting in 325 project conditions. What ensued since then has been a series of legal and regulatory challenges from the municipalities of Halton (Burlington, Halton Hills, Milton, and Oakville), and Conservation Halton that have persisted well beyond the federal governments approvals and have cost the regional municipalities upwards of $25 million.  

These legal challenges seek to halt this critical national infrastructure project and exert municipal jurisdiction over a federally regulated and approved project. Although this past May, the Supreme Court declined to hear both the municipalities’ challenge to the project approval from 2021 and their constitutional challenge related to the federal jurisdiction on the regulation of railroads at the Ontario Superior Court, the municipality continues to call on the prime minister and MPs to re-examine this project. The Milton Logistics Hub is proceeding; however, the legal hurdles have led to years of delay and millions of dollars in extra cost to this much-needed capacity in the supply chain. This has contributed to broader congestion issues across Canada, with containers sitting longer on the docks in Vancouver and Prince Rupert, B.C., carrying cargo destined for Eastern Canada.

That brings us to Montreal and the highly contaminated industrial property of the former Canadian Steel Foundries, purchased by Ray-Mont Logistics in 2016 for a transportation hub where containers and bulk goods are received, stored and transferred via rail and truck to the nearby Port of Montreal. This project is expected to significantly reduce Ray-Mont’s greenhouse gas emissions due to the proximity to the port and will expand capacity at the Port of Montreal. Unfortunately, the project has been contentious for years. The company won legal battles against the City of Montreal in Quebec Superior Court in 2018 and the Court of Appeal in 2021, confirming its right to operate on the site. In the fall of 2024, the City of Montreal and Ray-Mont Logistics reached a settlement which included granting the company exemptions from the urban plan and introducing a specific regulation for site development. Nearby residents remain unhappy and continue to seek avenues to delay this much-needed capacity enhancement to the national supply chain.

In both cases, local governments have significantly delayed infrastructure projects with far-reaching national consequences. This isn’t about neighbourhood disputes—it’s about removing the barriers to instead allow reputable companies to privately invest in creating capacity using industrial land to help exporters, supply chain workers, and this country’s ability to diversify markets and create jobs in a time of an economic crisis.

There are better ways to work where both communities and nationally significant projects can achieve their goals. Through constructive dialogue and active collaboration, we can collectively spend our dollars on solutions rather than legal battles. A good example of this is CN’s New Richmond Auto and Intermodal terminal in Wisconsin, U.S.A., which opened in 2020. While similar concerns were raised during this development, respectful, open dialogue led to investments in the community and solutions addressing concerns while still meeting timelines on this nationally important infrastructure. We see this type of cooperative federalism across multiple large infrastructure plays in the U.S. We need it here. 

We need strong and resilient supply chains more than ever. That requires coordinated action from all levels of government to reduce duplication, fast-track critical infrastructure, and ensure that projects in the national interest—like those in Milton and Montreal—aren’t indefinitely stalled by fragmented governance.

Canada can’t afford more inertia. It’s time to build.