Mr. Tirole, 2014 Winner of Nobel Prize for Economics, has said, “regulation is a complex subject because it must be light enough to prevent entrepreneurship from being squelched,” while “at the same time you need to have a strong state which is going to enforce those regulations.” The discussion among Members was very much in the same vein: that regulation is sometimes difficult but, on occasion, essential. The key is to grasp the difficulties and proceed, cautiously aware of the complexities and subtleties.

Tags : Trade, Trucking, Policy

The Annual Meeting held April 5 and 6 in Winnipeg brought together industry experts to discuss commodity outlooks for Western Canada.


BC's Harmonized Sales Tax (HST)

August 01, 2009 | Category: Briefings

Beginning on July 1, 2010, BC will introduce a Harmonized Sales Tax (HST). The HST combines the GST and PST into a single, value-added sales tax. What does this mean for transportation?

Tags : Policy, Economy

This document is proposed as a Framework for a National Transportation Policy. The document lays out a vision and objectives, and provides some strategies that all transportation stakeholders across governments and industry can pursue to achieve the objectives.


Participants generally believed significant policy progress had been made over the past 20 years, but a significant job remains to be done. There was general recognition of the tremendous investment and efficiency boost that had occurred in various transportation modes as a result of increased reliance on the marketplace, rather than regulation.

Tags : Policy

WESTAC conducted one-on-one, in-depth interviews with 50 Canadian leaders in late 2004. They were a cross-section of interests with varying degrees of connection to the transportation sector. (available in french - contact admin@westac.com)

Tags : Policy, Leadership

WESTAC undertook the report on behalf of the Canada Transportation Act Review Panel. This comprehensive document focuses on competitive rail access issues and issues related to emerging market structures and capital sustainability.

Tags : Policy