Time to update Canada’s and B.C.’s port model

Discourse among groups is crucial, Peter Hall writes.

These are uncertain times for British Columbia’s ports. Twenty years ago, when a previous federal Liberal government set up the current port governance system, it was motivated primarily by fiscal deficits and inflexible port administration. The reforms that set up the Canada Port Authorities in the late 1990s have worked reasonably well, but the model is ready for an update; the challenges going forward are just different. We need to complement the existing “made-in-Canada” approach with a “made-in-B.C.” approach.

In 1997, Vancouver area ports handled about 750,000 container units; Prince Rupert only started handling containers in 2007. Last year, Vancouver handled 3.3 million container units and Prince Rupert handled more than 900,000. They still handle bulk products; increasingly, those commodities are being exported in containers.

This massive growth is felt intensely in our communities, in jobs created by handling cargo, in structures built into the marine environment, in container trucks on our roads, and in nightly train whistles. In many shipping markets, ever-larger ships and consolidation of ocean carriers has resulted in intensified competition between port terminal operators. We face tough choices between pursuing technologies that make terminals more efficient and improve their environmental performance, but that result in fewer, well-paying, on-terminal jobs.

The Vancouver Fraser Port Authority says it wants to build a new container terminal at Roberts Bank to secure its competitive position; critics ask whether we can make better use of existing terminals, or whether the environmental impacts can be mitigated. In this landhungry region, any port expansion inevitably comes with questions about industrial land supply, about pressures to convert agricultural lands to industrial uses, and the even greater pressures to deliver housing. Municipal governments responsible for land use need more representation in port decision-making, just as we need to incentivize those same municipalities to protect industrial lands.

Meanwhile, Prince Rupert may be a viable alternative for some container shipments: what is the right complementary and competitive balance between B.C.’s two major, but very different, ports? B.C.’s ports have to support the needs of Canadian producers and consumers — provide them with efficient, cost-effective services — but they also have to be compatible with our community livability and sustainability goals.

Hanging over these thorny questions are the larger uncertainties of our time. What does true reconciliation with First Nations mean for ports, especially considering how much federal land is on the water’s edge? What are the prospects for trade in the age of Trump and Brexit? What are the implications of robotization and artificial intelligence for people working on the waterfront? What are the implications of climate change for activities on the water, what are our broader environmental responsibilities? Given the current battles over the export of fossil fuels through our ports, should the mandate of the Canada Port Authorities to promote trade be changed in some way?

Here’s hoping the folks in charge have the wisdom of Solomon, but they’re only human. They won’t get it right every time.

But we — citizens, firms, workers, industry associations, importers, environmentalists, exporters, governments and First Nations

— are more likely to accept their decisions if we’re confident that they were made by the right people, with the best available information and support, in service of the public interest. My view is that the current port governance structure doesn’t give B.C.’s port communities enough of a stake in the success of our ports; and it doesn’t give the port industry enough of a stake in the success of our communities.

The government of Canada recently invited everyone to weigh in on the future of the ports. I applaud them for tackling this tough issue. But we can surely go further: An enhanced process to convene B.C. citizens and stakeholders could help to build a shared vision for the future and find productive solutions.

We have an opportunity to remake and enhance the governance of our ports to ensure that their decisions are informed, measured, responsive and accountable. As a fellow citizen whose job it is to ask tough questions, I encourage you to have your say.