Transportation in Canada

Transportation in Canada, the world's second-largest country in total area, is dedicated to having an efficient, high-capacity multimodal transport spanning often vast distances between natural resource extraction sites, agricultural and urban areas. Canada's transportation system includes more than 1,400,000 kilometres (870,000 mi) of roads, 10 major international airports, 300 smaller airports, 72,093 km (44,797 mi) of functioning railway track, and more than 300 commercial ports and harbours that provide access to the Pacific, Atlantic and Arctic oceans as well as the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence Seaway. In 2005, the transportation sector made up 4.2% of Canada's GDP, compared to 3.7% for Canada's mining and oil and gas extraction industries.

Transport Canada oversees and regulates most aspects of transportation within federal jurisdiction, including interprovincial transport. This primarily includes rail, air and maritime transportation. Transport Canada is under the direction of the federal government's Minister of Transport. The Transportation Safety Board of Canada is responsible for maintaining transportation safety in Canada by investigating accidents and making safety recommendations.

There is a total of 1,042,300 km (647,700 mi) of roads in Canada, of which 415,600 km (258,200 mi) are paved, including 17,000 km (11,000 mi) of expressways (the third-longest in the world, behind the Interstate Highway System of the United States and the China's National Trunk Highway System). As of 2008, 626,700 km (389,400 mi) were unpaved.

In 2009, there were 20,706,616 road vehicles registered in Canada, of which 96% were vehicles under 4.5 tonnes (4.4 long tons; 5.0 short tons), 2.4% were vehicles between 4.5 and 15 t (4.4 and 14.8 long tons; 5.0 and 16.5 short tons) tonnes and 1.6% were 15 t (15 long tons; 17 short tons) or greater. These vehicles travelled a total of 333.29 billion kilometres, of which 303.6 billion was for vehicles under 4.5 t (4.4 long tons; 5.0 short tons), 8.3 billion was for vehicles between 4.5 and 15 t (4.4 and 14.8 long tons; 5.0 and 16.5 short tons) and 21.4 billion was for vehicles over 15 t (15 long tons; 17 short tons). For the 4.5 to 15 t (4.4 to 14.8 long tons; 5.0 to 16.5 short tons) trucks, 88.9% of vehicle-kilometres were intra-province trips, 4.9% were inter-province, 2.8% were between Canada and the US and 3.4% made outside of Canada. For trucks over 15 t (15 long tons; 17 short tons), 59.1% of vehicle-kilometres were intra-province trips, 20% inter-province trips, 13.8% Canada-US trips and 7.1% trips made outside of Canada.

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