Dear Editor,
MP Peschisolido is correct in his criticism of the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority (VFPA) and the responses from their vice president Duncan Wilson are misleading in a number of areas.
The Lower Mainland is not going to run out of container capacity in 2025. Lower Mainland container terminals are already expanding, by adding 1.5 million containers (TEUs) to their existing capacity. But that is not the whole story.
West Coast container terminals – which includes Prince Rupert – are set to add as much as three million container capacity and this will be sufficient for Canada’s trading needs for the foreseeable future. In fact Prince Rupert has enormous capacity expansion potential.
Not only that but it is two sailing days closer to Asia and has superior rail connections to Eastern Canada and the USA, avoiding the already congested southern rail route. Duncan Wilson also conveniently fails to mention that the Port of Vancouver handles significant volumes of US container traffic, which adds little or nothing to the Canadian economy.
Furthermore the ports of Seattle and Tacoma are expanding with the aim of taking that traffic back.
So why is the Port not telling the whole story? Because they are desperately trying to justify building a second container terminal on Roberts Bank right in the middle of one of the most important bird habitats in the whole of North America.
What Duncan Wilson also fails to mention is that they have missed every one of their last five growth forecasts.
They claim recent annual growth of six per cent, but in fact their cumulative annual compound growth rate is three per cent. And at that level of growth there is sufficient capacity already existing or planned for many years to come.
Duncan Wilson also talks about the advantages of expanding port operations in Metro Vancouver, but fails to mention the resultant problems of truck traffic congestion and the fact that the southern rail route through the Rockies is heavily congested. There is no need for further landside port infrastructure in Metro Vancouver. Only 10 per cent of containers are for the Lower Mainland, the remainder destined for Eastern Canada and the USA. Inland intermodal terminals such as the one at Ashcroft are a better approach, yet the Port of Vancouver has been lukewarm at best to inland terminals.
Hopefully the port authority governance review will result in changes to the governance structure and accountability of the Port of Vancouver, such that there is a more collaborative process both with other port authorities as well as with the municipalities that play host to the ports operations.
Roger Emsley
DELTA
