The Importance Of Transportation In The Canadian Economy PDF Download

Every commodity that Canadians consume and every service they use has in it a transportation component. Because of this characteristic, there is considerable divergence within the transportation community as to what constitutes an appropriate measure of the importance of transportation in the economy. The authors attempt their own calculation by using the Aggregate Transportation Function (ATF). The ATF takes into account not just those resources that go into the production of transportation services (rail, air, truck, marine), but also the vast amount other resources allocated to support these services (road building, regulatory agencies, etc), and the resources not accounted for at all, such as those provided by the private automobile. The authors feel that an accurate measure of the ATF is vital in order to understand the magnitude and ramifications of transportation in the economy, and secondly, to help assess the broader impact of transportation policies. In their conclusion, they estimate that 16% of all available resources are allocated for private and public transportation services for consumers, business and government. For the covering abstract of the Conference, see IRRD Abstract No. 807771.