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But given the recent tariffs on steel and an escalating trade war with the United States, many industry analysts, insiders and economic development officers are advocating for an oversized load corridor to connect manufacturing hubs in Ontario with resource projects in the West.

“If we don’t have infrastructure to compete on a world scale, then we’re at a disadvantage,” said John McInnis, Alliance engineering manager and vice-president. “Once the equipment gets out of Ontario, it’s a straight shot.”

In Ontario, it takes a minimum of nine weeks to get a permit to move an oversized load across the province. Once the permits are in place, trucking companies must pay to raise power lines (in most cases, Ontario Hydro lowers them as soon as the trucks pass through) and rotate street lights out of the way to move those loads to deep-water ports.

Once there, they are put onto specialized barges to sail across the Great Lakes before being trucked, once again, out of Ontario and across the Prairies. The journey from Sarnia to Fort McMurray, Alta., can be done in eight to 10 days once the permits are in place, for a total shipping time of about 70 days.

By comparison, it takes 30 days to move such loads from ports in South Korea through Houston to Fort McMurray, Alta., on a permanent over-dimension corridor, which means that overseas manufacturers have an easier time supplying the Canadian energy industry than a company near Toronto, according to a 2015 study by the Van Horne Institute, a Calgary-based think tank, and consultancy Prolog Canada Inc.