Gateways to Trade: Global Value Chains and Governance in Canadian Cities

Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Halifax: How do Canada's gateway city-regions position themselves within global value chains? How do they plan and deliver transportation infrastructures that facilitate trade? And why do their strategies raise democratic concerns? Gateways to Trade compares the approaches to trade-enabling transportation investment in these four urban centres to provide a novel perspective on trade policy. The authors investigate local urban governance relating to global production networks, value chains, and trade. They show that in planning transportation infrastructure for international trade, urban regimes in each city-region operate as executive democracies, consulting private actors, port authorities, and senior governments but bypassing citizen organizations. Gateways to Trade underscores the important role of local governments, which are often regarded as bystanders in questions of trade. Its key insights into Canadian policies on trade and infrastructure are deeply relevant in a changing global economic environment.