The Great Lakes St. Lawrence Waterway is one of the world’s greatest and most strategic commercial inland transportation systems. It is a navigational system of inter-connected parts that form the largest inland shipping route in the world and penetrates deep into the heart of North America. The global trade corridor, a deep-water highway, serves millions of North Americans each year. The Great Lakes/St. Lawrence Waterway is over 3,740 km long, stretching from the Lakehead at Lake Superior to the Gulf of St. Lawrence. It is longer than the Atlantic Ocean is wide.

Ontario’s shipping industry offers a highly integrated and efficient multi-modal transportation system that includes 50 commercial ports, The St. Lawrence Seaway lock system connected with a network of roads and railways. More than 40 provincial and interstate highways and nearly 30 railroad companies connect Great Lakes ports with key cities throughout Canada and the United States.

Nearly half the Waterway including all of the Great Lakes is stretched along Ontario’s southern border. US states with borders along the Great Lakes include: New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota.

The Great Lakes – St. Lawrence Waterway generates more than $4 billion and approximately 20,000 direct jobs in Canada while adding another $3 billion and 50,000 jobs to the US economy.

The marine transportation industry in Ontario was responsible for $2.2 billion of provincial GDP in 2003.

In 2003, Ontario ports handled more than 67 million tones of cargo. An equivalent movement by road would require almost 3 million truck trips annually. In 2003, more than 40 million tones of cargo moved through the Seaway system alone. Ontario’s 15 leading ports are responsible for nearly 30 % of Canada’s domestic marine trade and 17 % of Canada’s international port trade.