UPDATE: NAFTA Highway – March 23, 2010
1) BACKGROUND: Winnipeg – North American Union Trade Hub
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http://nauresistance.org/archives/1094 ]
By 0spp Published: August 29, 2009Posted in: Deep Integration, NAFTA Superhighway, North American Union
From Hudson Bay to the Gulf of Mexico — in the name of reducing travel time, transport and trade processing costs.
The Mid-Continent Trade and Transportation Corridor consists of a series of interconnected transportation systems, including: rail, road, air and marine shipping, that run through the centre of North America from the Arctic Port of Churchill in Manitoba, though the American Heartland to Mexico.
The key cities along the Corridor include: Winnipeg, Minneapolis, Kansas City (Kansas), Kansas City (Missouri), Oklahoma City, Dallas-Fort Worth, Austin, San Antonio, Monterrey, Guadalajara and Mexico City. This would be part the Corridor system that Canadian Prime Minister denied existed to the Canadian people.
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) focuses on the development and maintenance of efficient and safe transportation systems, a goal shared by the the Province of Manitoba and it’s NGO supporters, seeks to develop the Corridor but fails to see it’s long term ramifications for Canadians, Americans and Mexicans alike.
Development of the Corridor includes enhanced inter-jurisdictional coordination and investments in order to:
Reduce travel time, transport costs and trade processing costs
Ensure and enhance transportation security and safety
Making improvements such as these have the potential to enhance economic development throughout the corridor.
Canada, the United States and Mexico conduct over $2.5 billion in trilateral trade each day or about $990 billion in trade annually.
The Province of Manitoba and the City of Winnipeg and surrounding area have undertaken various corridor development activities over the last decade and will continue to work with stakeholders to foster relationships that result in increased economic development opportunities.
At the northern limit of the Corridor, the Port of Churchill in Manitoba provides North America with marine access to and from global markets, and is linked to southern transportation routes by rail. Winnipeg has a major intermodal transfer centre and Provincial Highways No. 75 and 29 south connect the province with the United States Interstate system I-29 and I-35. I-35 connects the United States to Mexico through the southern Port of Laredo.
For Further Reading: - Mid-Continent Trade Corridor Strategy (pdf)
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http://www.destinationwinnipeg.ca/uploa ... gy_171.pdf ]
The Inland Port System
The government of Manitoba has introduced legislation to build an “inland port” around Winnipeg’s James Armstrong Richardson International Airport. Intended to take advantage of the city’s proximity to the geographic centre of North America, the CentrePort Canada Act would authorize the creation of this corporation to oversee the “port”, and to fast track “investment and economic development decisions based upon a single, comprehensive transportation, infrastructure and land-use plan” for approximately 20,000 acres of land around the airport.
A world-class inland port run by a “corporation” in Winnipeg using the Winnipeg James Armstrong Richardson International Airport and surrounding land as a hub to import goods from Asia and Europe, and distributing those goods throughout North America by air, rail and road.
CentrePort Canada Inc (here’s the bait):
A “one-stop-shop” for business investment decisions with incentives for investment
Twenty thousand acres with of “shovel ready” industrial land
Intermodal transportation system is seamlessly connected to all modes of air, roads, rail and sea
Connected by rail to ports in Prince Rupert, Vancouver, Churchill and Thunder Bay
An asset presenting new opportunities for manufacturing, distribution/warehousing and logistics centre, supported by an educated labour force.
Manitoba’s plan for an inland port was given a big boost toward reality on Tuesday with Prime Minister Steven Harper committing more than $100 million in federal funds.
Harper was in the province to observe flooded areas of southern Manitoba and announce federal stimulus funding for the port concept.
He took a helicopter tour (perhaps interplanetary..) of the Red River Valley with Premier Gary Doer then landed at Winnipeg’s James Richardson International Airport at 2 p.m. for a joint announcement with Doer about CentrePort Canada Way.
The premier announced the provincial government would contribute the other half of the funding, plus donate land near the airport, for a total project cost of $212 million.
The CentrePort plan calls for 20,000 acres northwest of the airport to be turned into a massive trucking and rail depot linked to runways with aircraft coming and going from all over the globe. The idea builds on Winnipeg’s reputation as the geographic centre of North America.
Portions of the funding announced Tuesday will help develop a four-lane expressway linking the inland port to the airport. A high-speed corridor will connect Inkster Boulevard and the airport and the CP Rail Weston yards to the Perimeter Highway near Saskatchewan Ave.
Canada Post is already building a new mail distribution plant on 11 hectares of land east of the airport and a new Greyhound bus depot is under construction adjacent to the airport.
PROVINCE INTRODUCES LEGISLATION WHICH WOULD CREATE INLAND PORT CORPORATION:
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http://www.gov.mb.ca/chc/press/top/2008 ... -4397.html ]
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2) Canada: Building Canada with Federal & Provincial Investment in Infrastructure
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www.buyusa.gov/canada/en/federalandprov ... canada.pdf ]
Lucy Latka Robin Dunbar December 08
BACKGROUND
Canada’s federal and provincial governments have announced various infrastructure improvement plans over the last few years, creating several opportunities for U.S. companies in various sectors. As of 2003, more than fifty percent of the country's infrastructure was over 40 years old, with many roads, highways and bridges passing their half life. Efficient and reliable infrastructure is crucial to Canada's long-term economic prosperity and growth. Canada’s government officials, have therefore, deemed it necessary to invest in infrastructure improvement and modernization to reduce congestion, strengthen supply lines and ensure smooth and effective trade flows between Canada and the United States.
More than $1.8 billion in trade crosses the Canada-U.S. border per day. This volume of trade represents the largest bilateral trade relationship in the world with a rate of growth that has averaged six percent per year over the last ten years. This growth in trade and traffic has put significant pressure on the major trade corridors and border crossings between the Canada and the United States and various infrastructure improvement projects are currently underway to increase the capacity of these networks and sustain economic performance.
Building Canada is one such program initiated by the Government of Canada (GOC) that will provide $33 billion in funding to Canadian municipalities from 2007 to 2014. The goal of the Building Canada program is to build a stronger economy, cleaner environment and better communities through investment in infrastructure that will contribute to increased trade, public transit, wastewater and solid waste management, green energy, safe drinking water, bridge rehabilitation, sports and culture, and more.
The following is a province by province breakdown of the funding allocations under the Building Canada program:
MORE: [
www.buyusa.gov/canada/en/federalandprov ... canada.pdf ]
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3) CENTREPORT CANADA – Canada’s Centre for Global Trade – Winnipeg, MB
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http://www.centreportcanada.ca/index.html ]
Compilation of many articles:
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http://www.centreportcanada.ca/newshtml.html ]
Example:
Canada Poised to Become "Tariff-Free Zone" for Manufacturers Thanks to Budget 2010
Ottawa, March 9, 2010
Measures in Budget 2010 to eliminate all remaining tariffs on manufacturing inputs and machinery and equipment will be critical to creating jobs and growing the economy, according to the Honourable Jim Flaherty, Minister of Finance, and the Honourable Peter Van Loan, Minister of International Trade, who highlighted the measures today.
Read More:
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http://www.fin.gc.ca/n10/10-019-eng.asp ]
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Gateway to the World - Premier Selinger talks CentrePort - The ... The Canadian Business Journal
CentrePort Canada is North America's new 20000-acre inland port, as well as Canada's first Foreign Trade Zone (FTZ). Located in Manitoba, next to Winnipeg's James Armstrong Richardson International Airport, CentrePort will offer ...
Read More:
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http://www.canadianbusinessjournal.ca/f ... eport.html ]
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Related Articles:
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http://www.centreportcanada.ca/newshtml.html ]
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4) Marketing, fact-finding jaunt for CentrePort
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http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/busine ... 20342.html ]
By: Martin Cash 11/01/2010 1:00 AM
THE CentrePort Canada team is taking its show on the road this week with a five-day tour of inland ports in Mexico and the United States to promote the Winnipeg site and start making contacts in the industry.
A 30-person group -- including Premier Greg Selinger at a couple of key stops -- will tour and make presentations at four inland ports this week. The trip will serve as the beginning of the marketing of CentrePort as well as an opportunity for its supporters to see how other inland ports work.
"We have a large network of stakeholders that all want to see CentrePort succeed," said the newly created inland port's CEO, Diane Gray. "There is no better way to impress on them what we can be in the future than for all of them to see first-hand what success stories look like."
The large group will include CentrePort staff, board members, officials from three levels of government and representatives from business and labour.
The tour, designed with the help of Canadian embassies and consulates, will start at Guanajuato, Mexico, today with stops at the Alliance Global Logistics Hub in Fort Worth, Texas, the Dallas Logistics Hub, the International Port of Memphis and CentrePoint Intermodal Center in Joliet, Ill.
CentrePort board member Chris Lorenc said the mission signals to the rest of the world that CentrePort is open for business.
"This is no longer a fiction," he said. "This is a major industrial land-use opportunity -- a foreign trade zone initiative with new emerging business opportunities that the world should take note of."
Ottawa's marketing of Canada's trade routes used to exclusively feature the Asia-Pacific gateway on the West Coast connecting to Toronto and Montreal.
Lorenc said that has already changed to include the fact there is $250 billion worth of trade that goes up and down the mid-continent trade corridor that has Winnipeg as its northern hub.
MORE:
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http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/busine ... 20342.html ]
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5) New road link first part of plan for global hub/Video
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http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/ ... 87467.html ]
By: Bruce Owen 30/01/2009 1:00 AM
A new road and cloverleaf linking Winnipeg's airport to the west Perimeter Highway is the first stage of a massive plan to turn the city into a global transportation hub, officials said this week.
That road, running between and almost parallel to Oak Point Highway to the north and Saskatchewan Avenue to the south, will connect the CentrePort project near the James Armstrong Richardson International Airport to the west Perimeter Highway.
Officials close to the CentrePort project believe that road is being considered by the Harper government in its new budget. If so, construction could begin in the next two years. The CentrePort project was the only one of its kind in Canada highlighted in the federal budget.
"We have a lot of potential going for us," Manitoba's Infrastructure and Transportation Minister Ron Lemieux said. "But we don't have a real breakdown of the federal budget."
That means the province and CentrePort are still waiting to find out from Ottawa how much in new funding is coming Manitoba's way for the CentrePort road project.
"We are looking at the road, sewer, bridges and rail upgrades necessary to make it a viable enterprise," Winnipeg MP Steven Fletcher (C--Charleswood-St. James) said in Ottawa, noting specific details of the accelerated funding for CentrePort are still being worked out.
Fletcher said Tuesday's federal budget delivers $4.5 billion in infrastructure funding to Manitoba this year and in the five following fiscal years.
The CentrePort plan calls for the 20,000-acre area northwest of the airport to be turned into a massive trucking and rail depot linked to runways and aircraft coming and going from all over the globe.
MORE:
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http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/ ... 87467.html ]
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6) Trans Texas Corridor racing ahead
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http://www.augustreview.com/news_commen ... 100322157/ ]
By Terri Hall March 22, 2010
[Editor's note: The Free Trade corridor network that tie Mexico, Canada and the U.S. together are a critical component of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) that was negotiated by George W. Bush and signed into law by Bill Clinton. Both Bush and Clinton were members of the Trilateral Commission. Furthermore, NAFTA's chief architect was U.S. Trade Representative Carla Hills, also a Trilateral. The Trans Texas Corridor is the first major link of this super-corridor system; if successfully completed (e.g., if Texans lose the fight to stop it again), America will be opened up like a can of sardines.
Please see additional links below for other August Review articles on this topic.]
After Rick Perry's highway department announced the Trans Texas Corridor (TTC) route known as TTC-35 was "dead" in 2009, we find out post-election in 2010 that it, along with free trade, is very much alive and well. Canadian officials have shown renewed interest in a multi-modal trade corridor along I-35. Winnipeg recently announced its intention to build an inland port similar to those in San Antonio and Dallas. One such inland port in Kansas City has ceded sovereign United States territory to Canada and Mexico with the flags of all three countries flying over it. Officials in Winnipeg said it also intends to run a logistics and trade corridor to include rail and high speed highways all the way to Mexico as an Asia-Pacific gateway connecting to Toronto and Montreal.
It should surprise no one that former San Antonio Mayor Phil Hardberger and tolling authority (Alamo RMA) Chairman Bill Thornton took a trip to Toronto in 2006, partially at taxpayer expense, to promote Trans Texas Corridor-style trade connections and to be certain it includes the Port of San Antonio.
Norris Pettis, Canadian Consul General in Dallas, notes in the latest San Antonio Business Journal that "of all the urban centers I deal with, San Antonio is right up there in preaching free trade." The article also said Canadian officials observe an anti-trade sentiment in the U.S. as a whole, but see an open door in Texas, which they say doesn't share "protectionist policies."
MORE:
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http://www.augustreview.com/news_commen ... 100322157/ ]
Make the connection...
Read more about how privatizing government functions comes at great cost to taxpayers here:
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http://texasturf.org/index.php?option=c ... 6&Itemid=2 ]
Read Ed Wallace's article on Perry's cronyism regarding privatizing and tolling our public roads here:
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http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/01/08 ... mbers.html ]
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Terri Hall is the founder of Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom (TURF), a non-profit organization that has rallied Texans to successfully oppose the Trans Texas Corridor, which is a critical component in the formation of the North American Union (or North American Community).
The NAU was promoted by former President George Bush as the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP), and called for deep integration between Mexico, Canada and the United States.
For further information, Terri can be reached at
terri@texasturf.org or 210-275-0640.
Additional Resources on The August Review
Toward a North American Union:
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http://www.augustreview.com/issues/regi ... 200608181/ ]
The North American Union and the Larger Plan:
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http://www.augustreview.com/news_commen ... 007121884/ ]
Conquering Canada: The Elite Reconfiguration of North America:
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http://www.augustreview.com/issues/regi ... 007071671/ ]
The Plan to Disappear Canada:
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http://www.augustreview.com/news_commen ... 007060866/ ]
North American Union "Conspiracy" Exposed:
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http://www.augustreview.com/news_commen ... 007022150/ ]
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GLOBAL TRANSPORTATION HUB AUTHORITY HOLDS INNAUGURAL BOARD MEETING - Regina
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http://www.gov.sk.ca/news?newsId=d76fff ... e73dccdd6d ]
News Release - February 24, 2010
The Global Transportation Hub Authority (GTHA) Board of Directors - the team of experts brought together to lead the development of the Global Transportation Hub - is holding its first meeting in Regina today.
"We have assembled a diverse group of men and women with impeccable credentials in transportation logistics and international trade," GTHA Chair Wayne Elhard said. "With people whose names are instantly recognized in the international business community, the Global Transportation Hub (GTH) vision will quickly become a reality."
When fully developed, the GTH will comprise a major Western Canadian transportation and logistics centre. The GTH will stimulate provincial economic development by providing enhanced and more efficient access to global supply chains for Saskatchewan exporters and attract new investment.
The Board's mandate is to plan, develop, construct, operate and manage the Global Transportation Hub. In addition to Elhard, Board members include:
• Captain Gordon Houston (Vice Chair), Former President and CEO of Port Metro Vancouver;
• Mayo Schmidt, President and CEO of Viterra;
• Louis Ranger, Former Deputy Minister, Transport Canada;
• Marcella Szel, Q.C., Former VP, Marketing and Sales, Canadian Pacific Rail;
• Lionel LaBelle, President and CEO, Saskatchewan Trade and Export Partnership; and
• Ron Dedman, Deputy Minister, Government Services, Government of Saskatchewan.
More information on the GTH is available at
www.gtha.ca. -30-
For more information, contact:
Rebecca Rogoschewsky
Executive Council
Regina
Phone: 306-787-0980
Cell: 306-529-1601