Ottawa—Transport Canada’s National Trade Corridors Fund was well designed and implemented but just how well it is working is hard to tell, says Auditor-General Karen Hogan.

The program was launched in 2017 to improve the performance of the country’s transportation networks and facilities in moving products in and out of the country, which accounts for 60 per cent of Canada’s GDP, she noted in a report to Parliament.

While the Department studied the performance of trade corridors to identify problems in trade corridors that needed fixing, it used an incomplete performance measurement in assess results of remedial work. “Because of this, it was unclear whether projects were having the intended impact,” Hogan said.

As an example, project proposals targeted Canadian ports experiencing congestion issues. “This evidence-based approach supported the selection of projects intended to tackle proven gaps in the infrastructure. The Department assessed project proposals using a merit-based approach.”

However, the way the Department tracked and reported on performance did not show if the projects were having the intended impact,” she said. “The approach used to assess the success of the fund was not tied to the success of the projects it funded. For the remaining 5 years of the fund, Transport Canada needs to strengthen its results monitoring and reporting systems to properly assess the success of its projects and, ultimately, of the fund.”

Transport Minister Pablo Rodriguez said he would act on Hogan’s findings to make sure that transportation supply chain projects improve transportation infrastructure and implement digital tools and new technologies to alleviate “congestion pressures. on our supply chains while supporting economic resilience and sustainable growth for the longer-term.”

The Department will work at improving its tracking and reporting on the effectiveness of supply chain projects, he said. It will also promptly report on performance and accountability outcomes of new and ongoing projects.

Transport Canada had launched 7 calls for proposals to improve transport infrastructure since 2017. It “could not demonstrate on what basis it prioritized some meritorious projects over others,” Hogan said. So far, it has approved $3.8 billion to fund 181 transportation projects. About $711 million, 20 per cent of the approved budget was spent by 2013.

Improving Canada’s trade-related transportation infrastructure will contribute to the country’s economic success, improving the quality of life for Canadians.

Assessing the project proposals based on merit and then selecting which ones are recommended for funding are essential steps in prioritizing limited funding and ensuring that transportation needs are met, Hogan said. “Monitoring and reporting on results help Transport Canada to determine whether the funding provided is being used to meet the intended outcomes of the National Trade Corridors Fund.

She recommended Transport document the rationale used when validating project evaluation scores and applying additional considerations for identifying which proposals to recommend for funding.

As well, it should “strengthen project-level performance evaluation and monitoring to allow the consistent and timely gathering of performance information for future projects and those underway and to allow the roll-up of results from individual funded projects to inform program-level performance and accountability.”

This news item was prepared for National Newswatch