The 2025 federal election shined a spotlight on Canada’s overreliance on the U.S. market and the urgent need to diversify global trade. As the country now turns to action, it must start at the water’s edge. More than 90% of global trade in goods and commodities moves by sea. That makes Canada’s port authorities not just partners in this diversification effort—but critical enablers of it.
Canada’s 17 port authorities look forward to engaging with the new federal government on the commitments made during the campaign to strengthen trade corridors, increase infrastructure investment, and reduce our dependency on the U.S. market. That includes finishing the work begun under the previous government to modernize Canada’s ports policy framework—starting with ensuring that port authorities have greater flexibility in the financial tools available to them to make timely, strategic infrastructure investments.
The need is urgent. The National Supply Chain Task Force estimates Canada’s sea ports will require $110 billion in investment over the next 50 years. A 2024 survey of port authorities found between $10 billion and $21 billion in upgrades are needed by 2040—yet 61% of that capital remains unsecured.
Some progress has been made. The National Trade Corridors Fund and Green Shipping Corridors program have delivered close to $1.5 billion in support. A new $5 billion Trade Diversification Corridor Fund, promised during the election, will help. But public funding alone isn’t enough. If Canada is serious about building out global trade routes, it must give port authorities the capacity to act—by expanding their financial flexibility.
Today, CPAs face borrowing limits hard-coded into their letters patent and calculated using ultra-conservative debt coverage ratios. In practice, this means even when a CPA is prepared to support a billion-dollar private sector project, it may lack the borrowing headroom to do so. Delays, lost opportunities, or costly workarounds often result.
Canada’s ports compete not only with each other, but with major international gateways—especially in the U.S.—that are modernizing rapidly. Fixed borrowing limits tied to outdated risk models aren’t just inefficient. They’re a competitive liability.
What’s needed is a smarter, more responsive system. Borrowing flexibility should scale with a CPA’s financial performance. Routine infrastructure investments shouldn’t require months of federal review. Expedited processes should exist for large, time-sensitive projects. And ports should be allowed to partner, borrow, and invest with the same agility as other major infrastructure operators.
Financial flexibility also extends beyond borrowing. CPAs are still constrained by narrow definitions of “port activities” under the Canada Marine Act. This restricts their ability to form subsidiaries, pursue joint ventures, or invest in commercially viable land development projects that could fund core infrastructure. For smaller ports in particular, these limitations are especially damaging.
An expanded definition of port activities—and the ability to capitalize non-wholly owned subsidiaries or joint ventures—would help ports generate the revenue needed to reinvest in infrastructure, adapt to climate demands, and respond to shifting trade patterns. These reforms were partially addressed in Bill C-33, but the legislation didn’t pass. Now is the time to finish the job.
Port authorities should also be able to retain proceeds from land sales when that land is no longer needed for core operations—so they can reinvest those funds into infrastructure that improves resiliency, capacity, or sustainability.
Still, even with greater flexibility, there will always be infrastructure needs that exceed what CPAs and their private partners can deliver alone. That’s why federal funding must remain part of the solution. When the federal government divested transportation assets in the 1990s, it recognized that some infrastructure—especially at smaller facilities—would always require public support. That principle still holds.
Dedicated funding streams for aging infrastructure, port resiliency, and capital-intensive equipment (like cranes) would bring CPAs in line with support already available to airports and harbours.
Trade diversification is not just a policy slogan. It’s a strategic imperative. But it won’t happen without modern, agile, and well-financed port infrastructure. Canada’s port authorities are ready to lead in building the trade infrastructure of the future—but they need the flexibility to do so.
Let’s give them the tools to get on with the job.
Daniel-Robert Gooch is president and CEO of the Association of Canadian Port Authorities, which represents all 17 Canada Port Authorities.