Great Lakes Seaway Partnership to promote commercial shipping

The American Great Lakes Ports Association, Lake Carriers’ Association, Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation and Fednav Limited recently partnered to sponsor a bi-national public affairs program -- the Great Lakes Seaway Partnership.

The purpose of the program is to unite top Canadian and U.S. maritime organizations to improve public understanding and awareness of benefits from commercial shipping throughout the Great Lakes Seaway area in North America.

The partnership aims to accomplish this by sponsoring research and education-focused communications programs, and through collaborations with policy makers, media, allied industries, community groups, environmental stakeholders and the general public.

“We are pleased to launch this new initiative that looks at the big-picture perspective of the Great Lakes Seaway System and serves as a platform to discuss the economic, environmental and safety benefits of this shared waterway for national, bi-national and international trade,” Mark Barker, president of the Interlake Steamship Company and chairman of the partnership's board of directors, said. “While the program does not have an advocacy agenda, we anticipate the program will engage our stakeholders by providing them with industry news, results of reports and studies, and opportunities for them to understand – in a very real way – the impact Great Lakes Seaway shipping has on the economies of both the U.S. and Canada.”