The Port of Vancouver wants to expand its capacity to handle containerized cargo to meet growth in global trade, but it’s at odds with one of its terminal operators over how to accomplish the expansion at Roberts Bank in Tsawwassen.
The port, for most of the last decade, has been advancing its $2-billion Roberts Bank Terminal 2 proposal, which would involve filling 108 hectares of new land into the ocean to build a three-berth expansion to the west of its existing Deltaport (DP) terminal.
Deltaport’s operator, Global Container Terminals Canada (GCT), however, has a $1-billion proposal to build a fourth berth to dock ships at the existing terminal, but the port, as GCT’s landlord and first-level regulator, has refused to consider a preliminary application as a first step.
In a letter, Port of Vancouver vice-president Peter Xotta said GCT’s Berth 4 proposal is in an area where the Department of Fisheries and Oceans has prohibited additional land reclamation and that Terminal 2 “is our preferred project for expansion of capacity.”
GCT’s CEO, Doron Grosman, however, argues that its Berth 4 proposal is substantially different from previous options turned back by the DFO and an environmental review should be allowed to determine its viability. As well, Grosman contends the port authority is showing “extraordinary bias” in favouring its own option for expansion over its tenant’s proposal.
“All we’re looking for is a transparent, fair, timely review process of our project,” Grosman said during a Postmedia News editorial board meeting.
Next week, the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency starts six weeks of public hearings into the Terminal 2 proposal, but GCT is in the middle of suing the port authority in Federal Court seeking a judicial review to determine whether its application can be removed from the Port of Vancouver’s purview.
Both Terminal 2 and GCT’s Berth 4 proposals would be timed to meet growth in container traffic by the late 2020s.
The Port of Vancouver handled a record 3.4 million 20-foot-equivalent-units (TEUs) worth of containers in 2018. Projections are that number will grow to between 6.7 million and 9.7 million TEUs by 2040.
In the meantime, Grosman said expansions planned or underway at its Vanterm terminal and DP World’s Centerm terminal, both in Burrard Inlet, as well as DP’s Prince Rupert container terminal, would be able to handle the growth.
“There really is no reason to rush to decide what capacity needs to be brought on,” Grosman said. “Roberts Bank Terminal 2 seems to think a decision has to be made tomorrow.”
From the Port of Vancouver’s perspective, GCT’s Berth 4 proposal would be running behind if it were to start an environmental assessment now, according to Duncan Wilson, vice-president of environment, community and government affairs.
Wilson said the port has spent six years putting together the studies and reports for an environmental assessment that is just reaching public hearings now.
“(Terminal 2) is the only project that can be permitted and built in time for the capacity constraints that are facing us,” Wilson said.
Competition is another concern for the Port of Vancouver. Wilson said GCT already has a dominant share of container traffic in the port and the authority’s preference is to bring in a third-terminal operator. Grosman argued that decision isn’t the port authority’s jurisdiction and it hasn’t demonstrated that there is a lack of competition for container traffic in the port.
This article by Derrick Penner originally appeared in the Vancouver Sun on May 9, 2019.