Program: Grain Exports to 2035: Is Western Canada Ready?


About 150 people met in Winnipeg for the annual Fields on Wheels conference on September 30 to hear the perspectives of a wide range of stakeholders in the grain handling and transportation system and discuss the implications of the new wheat marketing regime. Legislation was introduced subsequently in the House of Commons on October 18, 2011.


WESTAC and the Global Institute of Logistics were pleased to welcome nearly 100 senior delegates to participate in Transportation Summit 2011: Best Practices Shaping Global Logistics. The Summit explored best practices and benchmarking in cargo supply chains from North America, Europe, Asia and Australia based on a series of thought panels. Two workshops were held on the Service Guarantee (Marca De Garantia) and the development and use of Container Terminal Quality Indicators.


Transport Canada and its provincial partners have undertaken a National Commodity Flow, Trade and Traffic Forecasting project, to better understand the freight movement infrastructure needs of the future. The conference emphasized the freight movements from and through Western Canada. It rolled out the preliminary forecasts generated by IHS Global Insight. The forecasts covered the period from 2008 to 2026, and included the full spectrum of commodities carried by all modes, including airfreight. The purpose was to discuss the outlook for freight demand and answer the question: can Western Canada’s transportation system handle it? 

Tags : Capacity

One hundred forty people representing the resource and transportation industries, labour unions and all levels of government met (May 2007, Whitehorse) to discuss resource development and transportation in the North. This report synthesizes the conference presentations and discussions, as well as the written input from two participant surveys.


The primary purpose of this report is to propose and outline an action plan for northern transportation in Canada. The action plan follows from the Proceedings of the Northern Transportation Conference, including expert presentations, discussions, roundtable sessions and a survey.


Report synthesizes discussions at workshop held in Edmonton in November 2004.

Tags : Capacity, Air

On November 26 and 27, 2003, 125 key transportation stakeholders met in Winnipeg. The goal of the event was to find agreement on what is needed to build better transportation infrastructure. Delegates heard from expert panelists and had opportunities to provide their views through the completion of surveys.