Port plan enables national trade growth while protecting the environment

As Canada continues to tackle the challenge of COVID-19, the Port of Vancouver remains resilient, thanks to a diverse trading partners and cargo. At the end of June, year-to-date cargo volumes are only one per cent lower than 2019, despite pandemic impacts to the cruise and auto sectors. This gives us confidence that trade will rebound strongly, as it did after the 2008 recession. Our confidence extends to the container sector, where independent forecasts show long-term growth. Container trade will continue to be vital for Canadians who count on access to consumer goods that enable our standard of living; and to farmers and businesses across the country who rely on access to global markets. Improvements have been made to container terminals in Vancouver and Prince Rupert to increase efficiency and capacity. But they still won’t provide enough room to manage Canada’s future trade demands. As a Canada Port Authority, our mandate under the Canada Marine Act is to enable trade through the Port of Vancouver. This means anticipating and preparing for growth in the densely populated Lower Mainland of British Columbia while considering impacts to local communities and protecting the environment. For a decade, we’ve been consulting with stakeholders, local governments, and Indigenous communities about the Roberts Bank Terminal 2 Project, a proposed deep-sea container terminal in Delta, near Vancouver. The project, if approved, would take six years to build, making it ready by 2029, just in time to relieve a west coast Canadian container capacity crunch. The project holds tremendous generational opportunity for Canada. It would inject more than $2-billion in private capital into the economy, creating more than 12,000 construction jobs and more than 12,000 operating jobs. The project is driven by trade and market economics that will unleash private investment to fund the project through an operator’s long-term lease payments and port authority revenues—not taxpayer dollars. If we don’t meet the increasing demand in container trade through the Port of Vancouver, there will be consequences for Canada’s economic progress. Once Canadian ports are full, importers and exporters will be forced to move cargo through ports in the U.S., resulting in increased transportation costs which would be passed on to Canadian consumers and export markets and impact our trade competitiveness. Canada would also lose the jobs and economic benefits associated with the project, estimated at $1.2-billion in GDP annually. The benefits and potential effects of the project have been thoroughly reviewed. In March, a federal independent review panel concluded the project is in line with our mandate, “consistent with Canada’s role as a trading nation” and that it would “support competitiveness for Canadian markets linked to a marine shipping supply chain facing important changes.” They concluded that we had properly assessed alternatives to the project, and agreed that it would provide a significant contribution to the national, regional and local economies as well as Indigenous communities. The panel also studied potential environmental effects of the project and made recommendations for how they could be mitigated—providing a road map for how we can further mitigate project-related effects. We are committed to working with Indigenous groups, government and other stakeholders to develop and implement measures that effectively address these concerns. But our commitment to the environment extends beyond what is proposed or required for the project. For example, since 2014, we have brought together the marine transportation industry, government, Indigenous individuals and groups, environmental groups and scientists to advance a regional initiative called the Enhancing Cetacean Habitat and Observation (ECHO) Program to study and reduce the effects of marine shipping on at-risk whales in our region. We appreciate the significant amount of support the project has received. We’ve heard from many stakeholders—Canadian producers of grain, forest products, minerals and other resources, retailers, railways, shipping lines, the construction industry, labour, small, medium and large businesses across the country, and the governments of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba—who recognize the project’s national importance, as well as our ability to protect the environment at Roberts Bank. Like us, they are optimistic about Canada’s trading future and the role this project will play in its success. We look forward to the federal government’s decision on the project and supporting Canada’s economy moving forward. Duncan Wilson is vice-president, Environment, Community, and Government Affairs for the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority, the proponent of the Roberts Bank Terminal 2 Project. The Hill Times