Economic corridor actions

Alberta Transportation and Economic Corridors is a member of the Council of Ministers Responsible for Transportation and Highway Safety, which is federal-provincial-territorial forum that facilitates collaboration on improving the transportation system’s role in moving people, goods and services, while ensuring the safety of the system. Through this Council, Alberta works to advance the province’s interests with respect to market access including matters related to corridors, air transportation and marine transportation, along with the safety of commercial drivers and vehicles.

Through this Council, Alberta has worked with federal, provincial and territorial counterparts on the following initiatives:

• Interim Report for the Pan‑Canadian Competitive Trade Corridor Initiative
• Phase 2 Report for the Pan-Canadian Competitive Trade Corridor Initiative
• Primary Conclusions of the Working Group on Recovery of the Air Transportation Sector

Alberta is also a member of the Western Transportation Advisory Council (WESTAC), which provides opportunities for the province to work with other Western Canadian governments, transportation operators and industry on identifying solutions to challenges facing Western Canada’s supply chains.

WESTAC’s seventh annual report, the Compass Report, highlights critical insights, expectations and plans from business, labour and government executives across Canada’s transportation industry. The survey is revised annually to reflect shifting trends and events. The report has become a well-read measure of the state of transportation that identifies the major sectoral issues.

• WESTAC Compass Report 2024

As well, Alberta is a member of the Transportation Association of Canada (TAC), which is a not-for-profit, national technical association focused on road and highway infrastructure and urban transportation. In 2021, TAC released a report, entitled Understanding Goods Movement in Canada: Trends and Best Practices.

In April 2023, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba signed an agreement to collaborate on joint economic corridor projects to boost trade and economic growth.

Read the agreement.

For more information, see Taking the lead on new nation-building projects.

In June 2023, during the Western Premiers’ Conference, Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and Yukon confirmed their mutual interest in working together to improve regional economic growth through the development of economic corridors.

A committee was formed, chaired by Yukon, to develop recommendations and priorities on corridor collaboration. The committee’s work includes identifying major corridors, barriers and strategies for the advancement of corridors, the major projects within these corridors, and efforts to advocate together to the federal government on the scope and scale of linear investment needed in Western Canada to support future economic growth.

Provincial highway projects help enhance the province’s economic corridors by adding capacity for the movement of people and goods. A component of Alberta Transportation and Economic Corridors’ capital spending also focuses on the rehabilitation of existing infrastructure that is relied on by Albertans, Alberta businesses and transportation carriers.

To prioritize capital projects, including those which support economic corridors, the criteria for recommendations on the Capital Plan submission consider economic, safety, social and environmental impacts, as well as cost-benefit analysis. The economic benefits of capital projects play a prominent role in the identification of those projects in the ministry’s 3-year Capital Plan.

Through Transportation and Economic Corridors’ grant funding programs, Alberta municipalities can access funding for local infrastructure projects that enhance the movement of goods and people. This local infrastructure connects into broader economic corridors that provide access to other destinations within Alberta and outside the province.

In particular, 2 components of the Strategic Transportation Infrastructure Program (STIP), are the Resource Road Program, which supports building and improving road infrastructure that supports industrial and economic growth, and the Community Airport Program, which supports the rehabilitation and improvement of community-owned public-use airports.