Two-thirds of Canada’s GDP comes from moving goods in and out of the country, yet our current system does not consider this essential.
Canada needs to worry less about not being in the U.S.’s Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, and to worry more about the upcoming North American trade pact review and potential renegotiation.
For a country that relies on trade for two-thirds of its GDP, and for the provinces like Saskatchewan that rely on the port for close to 20 per cent of its provincial GDP, this is an existential question. For the government in Ottawa, it is a confidence motion of sorts for its Indo-Pacific trade ambitions.
In Western Canada, where the full range and importance of the trade relationship with Japan is well understood and appreciated, the hope that ‘we don’t blow it this time’ runs strong. But it is clouded by real worry.
