Prince Rupert key to West Coast market access
Gateway city is strategic and vitally needed, Bud Smith says.
A headline in a recent issue of The Financial Post raised the alarm: Fears grow, Canada missing the boat on expanding vital West Coast ports.
The story went on to highlight concerns about constraints on growth and Canada’s ability to capitalize on future opportunities and transport goods in and out of the West Coast, especially given the additional billions in trade volumes expected following ratification of the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).
The solution to Canada’s current West Coast market-access issues is the Port of Prince Rupert.
A competitive location and workforce, room to keep growing, community and First Nations support, a track record of delivering projects
— all of these attributes suggest this gateway is strategic and vitally needed to support our national trade agenda, and the benefits that come with it.
Canada’s opportunity to grow trade with Asia Pacific markets is well-documented.
In 2017, the ports of Vancouver and Prince Rupert shipped a combined 166 million tonnes of cargo, including 4.2 million TEUs of containers, worth about $235 billion. Initiatives such as the CPTPP continue to open opportunities for exports and for Canadian industries to diversify markets that maximize economic value for their goods.
Canada’s challenges are also well-documented. The Port of Vancouver has concerns about developing new terminals; growing transportation corridors is difficult due to gridlock and landuse conflicts experienced in dense urban areas. Other metropolitan ports on North America’s West Coast are experiencing similar issues. For contrast, look north.
The Port of Prince Rupert has successfully attracted new investment and cargo growth into a gateway that explicitly avoids the pitfalls of urban congestion. The value of trade flowing through Prince Rupert is now the third largest in Canada — truly a big port in a small town.
In the last decade, over a billion dollars of private-sector investment has flowed into four new terminal developments. Cargo volumes have grown by 450 per cent, including a record 24 million tonnes in 2017.
For example, DP World’s Fairview Container Terminal recently expanded its capacity to be the second-largest container terminal in Canada and the fastest-growing container terminal in North America.
This successful port expansion provides critical supply-chain options and value to shippers across Canada — enabling fast, reliable market access to the manufacturing, agriculture, aquamarine, forestry, mining, liquid petroleum gas and consumer sectors. Its development also supports over 5,000 direct high-wage jobs for women and men who enable Canadian trade across northern B.C.
Over the next decade, the Port of Prince Rupert is primed to double the volume of goods moving through its harbour. New terminals are advancing that will increase the capacity, capability and resiliency Canada needs to succeed.
AltaGas is midway through construction of a new propane export terminal.
DP World is actively advancing another container-terminal expansion, with plans to add another 1.4 million TEUs and reach 2.7 million TEUs of capacity by 2025. Other proponents are considering projects that would handle a variety of intermodal, dry-bulk, liquid-bulk and other exports.
With long-term ability to develop capacity for over 100 million tonnes, and potential to achieve five to seven million TEUs of container throughput, the future is promising. The Port continues to proactively plan for the commonuser infrastructure growth — including rail, road and marine — to ensure transportation remains safe, fast, fluid and reliable.
The result is a development plan that will not only avoid bottlenecks before they occur, but will also remove 100 per cent of associated truck traffic from residential/commercial city streets, thus minimizing the port’s footprint on the environment and our neighbouring communities.
The solution to Canada’s West Coast challenge invites strategic, innovative and forward-thinking approaches. It requires long-term alignment of private and public investment. It needs a willingness to look at alternatives that have a demonstrated track record of success, a runway for growth and a supportive community audience.
Look north — the Port of Prince Rupert is Canada’s Asia Pacific trade solution. With it, Canada need not ever ‘miss the boat.’