Canada’s Indo-Pacific strategy is short for exporters | Daily News Byte

There is much to applaud in Ottawa’s recently released Indo-Pacific strategy. For starters, it offers a comprehensive framework with clear goals and corresponding financial commitments. It also makes a compelling case for why Canada, a Pacific country itself, must prioritize and pursue its vital interests in the region. These are all things that business leaders have long advocated.

Key elements of the strategy are missing in detail.

The most significant shortcoming relates to the lack of emphasis on domestic infrastructure to ensure that Canadian exporters can get their goods to market. The biggest infrastructure commitments contained in the strategy are limited to new investments in the countries we hope to sell.

Of course, there are good reasons why Canada should help support infrastructure projects in the Indo-Pacific: first and foremost, our exporters will not have much success if the markets they target do not have the capacity to accommodate higher trade volumes; second, some of those projects could eventually be managed by Canada’s world-class engineering and construction companies.

But trade facilitation is an end-to-end endeavor and, as such, we must improve the resilience, reliability and capacity of the infrastructure that enables exports here in Canada.

In this area, the strategy has been largely silent, apart from acknowledging that some infrastructure projects — ports, roads and rail links — could receive money from the previously announced National Trade Corridors Fund.

Worse, the strategy makes no mention of expedited project approvals needed to support energy exports. In fact, the only mention of domestic energy infrastructure is a passing reference to it as an area where Canada can collaborate with Korea and Japan. This is a strange omission, given that energy supplies are what our Indo-Pacific partners most want from Canada.

When South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol visited in September, he and Prime Minister Trudeau signed a joint statement that included a commitment to “build value chains in Canada and Korea to support the clean energy transition and energy security.” A few weeks later, the government released a Canada-Japan Action Plan that also highlighted energy infrastructure.

The absence of ambitions in terms of energy exports is clear from the figures. The Indo-Pacific Strategy states that Canada will “expand natural resource linkages” with priority countries in the Indo-Pacific. However, according to the background notes, the financial commitment for this goal is only $13.5 million over five years. That’s roughly 0.005 percent of the strategy’s total commitment of $2.3 billion.

In fairness, the strategy at least recognizes the importance of Canadian energy exports to the Indo-Pacific. Not only would they allow regional allies, such as Korea and Japan, to reduce their reliance on Russia and other authoritarian regimes, but they would also help other countries in the region transition from older, higher-emitting forms of energy, such as thermal coal.

For these reasons, it was disappointing that the strategy did not mention Canadian liquefied natural gas (LNG).

Speaking in Washington in early October, Deputy Prime Minister Christia Freeland rightly identified LNG as an “important transition fuel” in the fight against climate change. Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly further highlighted LNG during her recent visit to Japan and Korea.

The strategy is also curiously silent on nuclear power. Canada is the undisputed world leader in nuclear power, including small modular reactors, and a significant global exporter of uranium. With demand for nuclear power reviving in Asia, this is another area where Canada can provide innovative solutions to help our friends and allies decarbonize.

The success of any strategy depends on its implementation. Overall, the plan points us in the right direction and outlines some of the early steps Canada will take toward its goals — something that was much needed.

The government must now translate aspirations into actions, and actions into achievements. In this, he can count on the support of Canadian business leaders.

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