Canada's Conundrum

by John Thompson

September 7, 2003

Stuck in traffic too often? Wondering why we never have enough in the way or resources to cover everything? Short of money? The ultimate cause for some of these problems might be more obvious than you think.

Canada’s geography mitigates against easy development. We have a huge territory — being the second largest nation on the planet. However, we have a nasty climate. Natural transportation routes during settlement of the country and the concentration of arable land near the US border largely dictated a settlement pattern that remains today — we are a series of distant communities strung out in a band thousands of kilometres long, and only hundreds of kilometres wide. To the north of us is an empty wilderness that we can use for pleasure, and harness some resources from, but few of us live there.

It is easy for modern Canadian urbanites to forget just how deadly winter can be (and how taxing preparation for winter can be on one’s resources). We also don’t really consider the constant demand it makes on us. Most American cities and almost all European ones only need a fraction of the money and machinery that we have to earmark every year just to keep our roads clear.

Also, they don’t have to contend with the constant frost buckling and wedging that cuts so dramatically into the lifespan of our roads and rail-lines. When the streets in Athens or Miami are full of potholes, it’s because of heavy use; for us, winter does that every single year. Their water mains and sewer pipes don’t burst so often, and the chance of a dangerous ice storm is much reduced. Our infrastructure costs are far higher than they are for most other Westerners because of winter.

Sundry environmentalists condemn Canada for its high use of energy… Well, duh! Like, we have a choice? For five to six months a year, we must heat our homes, offices and factories. We get frost at night, and turning off the heat is not an option — one can turn it down (I do, as I prefer a temperature of 14 to 15 C), but you cannot turn it off. Most of us who live in the interior of the country experience what the effects of a continental climate… if it gets to —40C in winter, it can also get to +40C in summer. Air conditioning is not as much of a necessity as heating, but the great majority of us would rather live with it than without it. We burn more energy on a per-capita basis, because we have no other choice.

We also have further to travel further than most other peoples do — a point most of us take for granted without thinking about it too much. Our busiest transportation corridor runs from Quebec City to Windsor, a distance of some 1,200 kilometres, and over half of our population (some 16 million of our 32 million inhabitants) live within that corridor. By contrast, some 30 million Americans in California live within a transportation corridor some 700 kilometres long, and about 50 million Americans live within the 700 km Boston-Washington corridor. Much denser populations living much closer together than we do, hey? Our Western European cousins are even more tightly packed.

For us, fewer people have to travel further, on a transportation infrastructure that needs to be repaired much more often. Which is why we really have only one single superhighway (the 407) running through the core of Ontario, and when it is jammed or blocked, there is no alternative because we simply haven’t got the resources to build and maintain a parallel route.

The constraints of climate, distance and density on our pocketbooks are there and we have no choice about it — nor do our governments. However, the effect of our geography and climate on our governments is often forgotten: Roads, rail-lines, and power plants are not as ‘sexy’ as other policy issues like, oh, gay marriages, heritage, or whatnot… until the roads are too cluttered, the power supply is inadequate, and I’m being taxed too heavily.

We forget the fundamentals of life too easily, and yet these are the most critical issues of them all. In Ontario, we currently have provincial and municipal elections, and a federal election is looming soon… and I know damn well what I want to hear from my candidates. I want roads in good shape and a bountiful energy supply. Also, I like getting waffles on my breakfast plate, not fed to me by a political candidate when I ask him or her about infrastructure.

Tending our infrastructure ranks above everything else on the list of responsibilities for a government, and I will never vote for a politician who doesn’t recognize this. You should do likewise.

John Thompson is President of the Mackenzie Institute which studies political instability and terrorism. He can be reached at: mackenzieinstitute@bellnet.ca