[...] "Long known for freight transportation, the Saint-Laurent has experienced a marked decline in this regard over the past 20 years. The staggering growth of trucking in particular has caused a reduction in the demand for maritime transportation. The withdrawal of the federal government from its traditional responsibilities for the Saint-Laurent has also diminished the competitiveness of maritime transportation. But the benefits of maritime transportation are manifold, especially its competitive costs and environmental advantages. Hence, given its high quality infrastructure and services, and its strategic position, which makes it the shortest route between Europe and the American heartland, the Saint-Laurent must serve as a key development tool.
The adoption of a marine transportation policy is a major step from the standpoint of the integration of all transportation modes. This integrated approach will enable the government to equip Québec with a truly comprehensive transportation plan focused on consistency and multimodality. The primary objective pursued has a number of facets, including the establishment of a strategic transportation network incorporating all transportation modes and the installation of multimodal facilities that ensure continuous and harmonious movement of people and goods, at a competitive cost and in an environmentally friendly manner.
To enable the maritime sector to make a greater contribution to Québec's economic development, it must be supported with a view to helping it become further integrated with other transportation modes. More than an effort to revive a tradition and give new vitality to an essential sector of activity, this policy, which is resolutely open to the modern world, contains guarantees for success in meeting current and future maritime and intermodal transportation challenges. [...]"
Message from the Minister of Transport, Québec Marine Transportation Policy, p. I.
[...] "The Saint-Laurent remains today an extraordinary instrument of economic, social and heritage development for Québec. But in several respects its potential has not been fully realized. A strategic waterway and the backbone of the Saint-Laurent/Great Lakes system, the river should be used to a greater extent for intercontinental trade and become a special link in North America. At the same time, it could also breathe new life into cabotage, a profitable way to use this magnificent waterway in order to relieve traffic on our overcrowded roads.
The government is taking such a direction in this first marine transportation policy, a tool made necessary by the current circumstances: the growth of trade, North American competition, the withdrawal of the federal government from a sector where it was traditionally present, and the Québec government's constant concern for the economic development of all its regions.
The restructuring of the freight transportation industry, the competitiveness of the Saint-Laurent, workforce training, sustainable development, and the promotion and development of river tourism are all challenges that call for carefully targeted action. To ensure that the Saint-Laurent plays a strategic development role in the 21st century, steps must be taken immediately. By coupling its support with the daily efforts of all maritime stakeholders, the Québec government makes a commitment to do everything in its power to renew the vitality of the Saint-Laurent. Although this first marine transportation policy does not claim to provide all the solutions to the many challenges it posits, it nonetheless proposes a series of concrete measures and actions that, I hope, will meet maritime transportation needs. [...]"
Message from the Minister of Transport and Marine Policy, Québec Marine Transportation Policy, p. II.
Documentation
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