Media releases

• Niagara Community Observatory explores challenges, opportunities in local transportation and logistics

  Thursday, July 09, 2020 | By Brock University

  MEDIA RELEASE: 30 June 2020 – R0108

  Government and private sector groups should collaborate on imaginative ways to help commercial vehicles by-pass the increasingly congested QEW between Niagara and Toronto, suggests new research from Brock University’s Niagara Community Observatory (NCO).

  One possibility suggested creating a ferry service for trucks that would “get them off the road and onto the water,” enabling them to reach Oshawa without going through the Golden Horseshoe, says the NCO’s latest policy brief.

  This is one of several recommendations made in “Niagara’s Transportation and Logistics Sector: Becoming a Global Economic Lynchpin,” to be released next week.

  NCO Director and brief author Charles Conteh will be presenting the policy brief followed by a panel discussion at a virtual event on Tuesday, July 7 from 9:30 to 11 a.m. via Microsoft Teams. Those interested in attending should register by emailing cphillips3@brocku.ca by noon on Monday, July 6. Registrants will receive a link before the event.

  The brief provides a bird’s eye view of Niagara’s transportation and logistics industry with the aim of “leveraging its assets” to not only successfully overcome the challenges of a rapidly-changing Niagara economy, but hook into new and emerging opportunities, says Conteh, Associate Professor in Brock’s Department of Political Science.

  “The sector plays a foundational role as an all-purpose platform sector in the region’s economic competitiveness,” he says. “It is the one sector that Niagara wants to invest in from the standpoint of job creation and job security.”

  Conteh calls the sector a “workhorse” that facilitates the movement of goods and people by road, rail and water, connecting Niagara with the U.S. and the rest of the world and providing a stable workplace consisting of a range of white collar, blue collar and “no collar” jobs.

  The transportation and logistics sector is doing well, with Niagara’s top three employers in the sector being in the areas of general freight trucking, freight transportation arrangement and specialized freight trucking, with a total of 3,012 jobs in 2019. Additionally, from 2011 to 2019, the number of jobs in scenic and sightseeing land transportation grew 1,286 per cent.

  Compared to the regions of Windsor, Hamilton, Toronto and London, Niagara has a near-monopoly in the areas of deep sea, coastal and Great Lakes water transportation and scenic and sightseeing water and land transportation, says the brief.

  The brief also points out the sector’s challenges, including a frequently bottlenecked QEW, the growth of automated driving capacities, drone technologies and robotic systems, and a labour pool shortage due to young workers leaving the area and pursuing opportunities in more knowledge-intensive and service-based fields.

  In addition to offering a ferry service for trucks wishing to avoid Toronto-Niagara traffic congestion, the brief puts forth several other recommendations to help the transportation and logistics sector survive and thrive, including:

  • With the rising demand for ecommerce, increase investment in the process automation of Niagara’s warehousing industry, which has a competitive advantage over Toronto and Buffalo largely due to land availability.
  • Explore alternative road routes such as a mid-peninsula corridor and options for commuters such as light rail to ease QEW congestion.
  • Identify how policies and partnerships at the federal, provincial and regional government levels could be harmonized to increase efficiencies. For instance, municipalities could align their planning departments’ protocols and processes to make it easier to apply for transportation and logistics business permits.

  “Niagara’s locational advantages cannot be taken for granted in a world of breakneck technological, economic and demographic shifts,” says the brief. “Addressing the immediate and growing constraints in the supporting infrastructure of transportation services, equipment and warehousing is time-sensitive. Equally so, investing in digital and institutional infrastructure to fully exploit emerging opportunities in eCommerce is not a luxury, but a necessity.”

  Media interested in attending the July 7 virtual event should email cphillips3@brocku.ca

  For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:

  * Dan Dakin, Manager Communications and Media Relations, Brock University ddakin@brocku.ca or 905-347-1970 

  – 30 –

  Categories: Media releases

• Brock and WWF-Canada address freshwater challenges amid ‘threat multiplier’ COVID-19

  Friday, June 26, 2020 | By Brock University

  MEDIA RELEASE: 26 June 2020 – R0107

  The COVID-19 pandemic may not be causing freshwater challenges, but it’s certainly compounding the problems.

  Brock University’s Environmental Sustainability Research Centre (ESRC) and World Wildlife Fund Canada (WWF-Canada) have launched the Partnership for Freshwater Resilience.

  Unable to host an in-person event due to COVID-19 restrictions, Brock and WWF-Canada officially launched the partnership with a Future of Freshwater virtual panel discussion Thursday, June 25 with more than 75 people across the country tuning in.

  The panelists from both Brock and WWF-Canada agreed that the pandemic was adding complications to the challenges associated with fresh water in this country.

  “The threats, impacts and issues we were addressing have been multiplied by COVID-19,” said Elizabeth Hendriks, Vice-President of Freshwater Conservation at WWF-Canada. “For Indigenous and other communities that didn’t have access to clean water prior to COVID, this means they are faced with an even higher risk impacting their families, infrastructure, health care and well-being.

  “With our emergency and municipal services already strained, it feels like the COVID-19 prevention measures are putting even more strain on our already vulnerable people, and all our communities.”

  Assistant Professor in Brock’s ESRC and the Department of Geography and Tourism, Julia Baird, Canada Research Chair in Human Dimensions of Water Resources and Water Resilience, said the crisis is bringing greater attention to inequities in access to clean water around the world.

  “This increase in attention creates an opportunity for us as researchers and practitioners to bring a systems perspective and highlight the critical importance of things such as source water protection and a watershed/basin perspective,” she said. “As a scholar, it provides a way to engage more deeply with issues of mutual interest, do really solid research and contribute to scholarship on water governance, while also engaging in shared work that has immediate impact on the ground.”

  Signed in 2019, the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Brock and WWF-Canada solidifies an ongoing partnership between the two organizations, said Brock Vice-President, Research Tim Kenyon.

  “We are particularly pleased that Brock and World Wildlife Fund Canada are working together on a line of inquiry that is crucial to us all,” he said. “We need to be focused on the threats and impacts of climate change on freshwater. This partnership provides a foundation for new collaborative ventures and transdisciplinary research.”

  Megan Leslie, President/CEO of WWF-Canada added that she is “excited we can finally share the news of what Brock University and WWF-Canada are doing together.”

  “Canada is home to 20 per cent of the world’s freshwater, and with such abundance comes great responsibility to protect those waters. That goal has never been more important than right now,” said Leslie, who served as head of ocean conservation for the organization before taking on the leadership role in 2017.

  The partnership will initially focus on the Saint John River in eastern Canada, using it as a research subject for Brock faculty and students with the goal of improving how communities along its banks handle the impacts of increased flooding as a result of climate change.

  “One thing we’ve already learned is that nobody has a clear idea of who is doing what and where it relates to climate change, particularly the impacts of flooding along the river,” said Simon Mitchell, WWF-Canada Lead Specialist, Freshwater. “We’re developing a climate knowledge network survey, which will allow us to share experiences, develop common messaging, and better implement actions.”

  The initial focus and national scope of the partnership will help to shape the future of water in Canada.

  “This innovative partnership facilitates collaboration with one of Canada’s largest and most recognizable conservation organizations,” said Ryan Plummer, Professor and Director of the ESRC. “By working together, I am confident that we will advance science, policy and practice using the lens of water resilience.”

   

  For more information or assistance arranging interviews:

  * Dan Dakin, Manager Communications and Media Relations, Brock University ddakin@brocku.ca or 905-347-1970

  * Alexandra del Castello, WWF-Canada Associate Specialist, Communications adelcastello@wwfcanada.org, or 647-246-6996

  – 30 –

  Categories: Media releases