“When we look at shipping, it’s very important to also consider rail and truck access and these road projects are critical to the development of the gateway,” said Rick
Bryant, president of the Chamber of
Shipping of British Columbia.
The federal and provincial governments are getting their act together but not fast enough for the
Vancouver Port Authority. The provincial transport ministry met recently with the trucking industry to forge a better working relationship, while federal Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon visited the region in the spring.
“He went away with a good understanding of the gateway’s opportunities but the time now is for action,” said Capt. Chris Badger, the port’s vice president of customer development and operations. “We need to get on with developing this infrastructure. We must trust each center to take their responsibilities and run with them.”
The slow pace of infrastructure improvements vis-à-vis the rapid pace of global economic change represents a significant gap, as it takes decades to implement transportation strategies,
said Michael Gallis. The Charlotte, N.C.-based expert in large-scale metropolitan development strategies tried to convey “the sense of the imperative” at a recent Transport Canada conference on global transportation strategies.
“As we go forward, the gap is getting bigger and bigger,”
he said. “What we don’t fully appreciate is that gap is the cost of moving goods. It’s already shown up in the Unit-
ed States in its enormous deficits.”
Vancouver’s strategy over the next 10 years is to invest nearly $1 billion in infrastructure improvements every two years, including building a fourth container terminal.
Once a third berth is added to
Deltaport and Vanterm and Centerm
Terminals are expanded, the port’s
container throughput will increase to
5 million TEUs by 2020. As of June 30, volume reached 1 million
TEUs, up from 853,238 during the same six-month period in
2005, a 21 percent increase.
Its competition for business will be Prince Rupert, Canada’s newest container port. Located 933 miles north of Vancouver, it hopes to open a new trade route between Asia-Pacific and Canadian and U.S. markets. One day closer to Asia than Vancouver and two days closer than Long Beach, Calif., the 500,000-TEU terminal is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2007.
One natural trade corridor running between the United States and Canada is the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway sys-
Port of Vancouver TEUs
200,000
190,000
180,000
170,000
160,000
150,000
140,000
130,000 5/05 6/05 7/05 8/05 9/05 10/05 11/05 12/05 1/06 2/06 3/06 4/06 5/06 6/06 7/06
Source: Port of Vancouver
References:
Archives