Trade by Mode of Transport

Question

A grad student here is attempting to look at international trade. He is interested in looking specifically at trade by mode of transportation - what is the value of material arriving by rail / air / sea / road? He'd like at least twenty data points (twenty years, by preference). He doesn't care about examining particular commodities. CANSIM table 404-0021 would be useful if it covered more countries, more modes of transportation, and a longer time period.

I don't think that the trade statistics that we currently have allow this type of analysis - are there other Statistics Canada data which would capture this information? Should we be checking with some other government department for these data?

Answer

International Trade Division can produce this data, but at a fee only (multiple hundreds of dollars).

The Transportation Division does not have this type of information at the level requested. The student can have a look at our following publications for some information. I have not perused the pubs and doubt it will meet the user's needs - but just an FYI.

Trucking in Canada 53-222
Shipping in Canada 54-205
Rail in Canada 52-216

Looks like the CANSIM table you found may be the closest thing available free of charge.