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Building Roads, Expanding Opportunities: The South Fraser Perimeter Road Project

12 January 2009

Surrey, B.C.

Thank you Stock for that kind introduction, and for all you are doing as part of our team to advance British Columbia’s interests in Ottawa.

Greetings also to Premier Campbell, Minister Falcon, and to my colleagues from the Federal Parliament, Minister Gary Lunn, MPS Dona Cadman, Nina Grewal, Andrew Saxton, and Mark Warawa.

Ladies and gentlemen.

I am pleased to be here with Premier Campbell today to officially launch the South Fraser Perimeter Road Project, which is an integral part of the Asia-Pacific Gateway initiative for our Government.

As Premier Campbell and others will tell you, this is a very large project.

Once constructed, it will help move countless thousands of commuters and tons of goods.

As it is being constructed, it will create a large number of well-paying jobs at a time when those jobs are needed.

But this announcement is not about a road project; it is about where we are headed as a country.

Our Government has launched the Building Canada Fund, the largest series of infrastructure investments in this country in over half a century.

As the world struggles with the effects of the global recession, we Canadians are looking ahead in order to ensure that we are part of the great economic opportunities of the coming century, and whatever may happen in the next couple of years.

There is no doubt that many of those opportunities will be located across the Pacific in the burgeoning economies of Asia.

We will ensure that that future belongs to Canada, and we will be part of that future because of British Columbia, our gateway to the great opportunities of the Asia-Pacific region.

It is our gateway to China, India, Korea, Indonesia, Japan, and all the rest.

This is why, as I told the thousands assembled at the Legislature this past summer to celebrate this province’s 150th anniversary, British Columbia is more important to Canada than at any point in our history.

I’d like to thank the Government of British Columbia and Premier Gordon Campbell, not just for being a partner in this project, but more importantly for being a partner in this vision of our country: By looking forward, making the decisions, and seizing the opportunities that will make Canada an economic leader in the world of the future.

Thank you.

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