Ensuring Canadians receive affordable goods on time is essential, especially after the last 2.5 years of the global COVID-19 pandemic. That is why the Minister of Transport, the Honourable Omar Alghabra, established the National Supply Chain Task Force earlier this year to examine the key issues affecting Canada’s supply chain operations. The Task Force’s mandate was to produce recommendations on how we can make our transportation supply chain more robust and Canadians’ lives more affordable.
“Ensuring that Canadians receive essential goods has been a top priority for our Government,” said Minister Alghabra. “Over the past several months, I’ve met with a range of supply chain partners and discussed challenges and strategies for public and private sector collaboration to find innovative solutions to ease congestion throughout our supply chain. We continue our work to find answers to ensure Canada’s supply chain remains efficient and reliable. I also wish to thank the National Supply Chain Task Force for their efforts over the last several months. The Task Force’s final report will prove invaluable as Canada develops its National Supply Chain Strategy.”
Minister Alghabra welcomes the Task Force’s final report and is reviewing it with great interest. The Final Report focuses on areas of action, collaboration, and transformation as overarching themes to improve Canada’s supply chain. To realize results for Canadians, 21 measures have been recommended.
Highlights of recommended actions in the report include:
- Easing port congestion;
- Addressing labour shortages and employee retention;
- Establishing a federal Supply Chain Office to unify relevant federal government activities;
- Protecting corridors, border crossings, and gateways from disruption;
- Developing a national transportation Supply Chain Strategy; and
- Engaging the United States and the provinces and territories to achieve mutual recognition of regulations, policies, and processes.
“We thank the Minister of Transport for the privilege to serve and having provided us an opportunity to consult with industry representatives from across the country to gain an in-depth perspective of Canada’s supply chain priorities,” said Jean Gattuso and Louise Yako, Co-Chairs of the National Supply Chain Task Force. “We hope the National Supply Chain Task Force’s Final Report will guide conversations and collaborations that will lead to an improved national transportation supply chain.”
The Task Force consulted extensively to gain a broad array of stakeholder perspectives on priority areas for short and longer-term actions to reduce congestion, improve reliability, and build resilience within Canada’s transportation supply chain.
Collaboratively strengthening our transportation supply chain with our provincial and territorial partners is part of the Government of Canada’s strategy to respond to the rising cost of living and to put money back in the pockets of Canadians. An efficient and resilient transportation supply chain is key to expanding Canada’s economic capacity and productivity and will drive long-term growth. The Government of Canada will continue supporting Canadians through infrastructure investments and growth strategies.
Moving forward, the Government of Canada will develop a National Supply Chain Strategy. This Strategy will be informed by the recommendations included in the Task Force’s final report.