Opposition to the proposed expansion of a Port of Vancouver container shipping terminal is symptomatic of a wider issue that should concern anyone interested in realizing the region’s future economic opportunities: a growing disconnect between Metro Vancouver’s residents and the industrial fundamentals that support their relatively affluent lifestyles.
Protesters at a June 11 rally against the proposed $320 million expansion of DP World’s Centerm container terminal reportedly raised concerns over its potential impact on everything from water quality to obscured views from Crab Park.
However, a bigger concern for the area’s economy should be the increasing complexities facing the port’s ability to develop its business and the businesses of companies that depend on it and realize an Asia-Pacific Gateway potential that will benefit B.C. and the rest of the country. It already faces the rapid loss of usable industrial land that can accommodate current and future trade in such key areas as container shipping.
Competition for that trade is growing, not just from West Coast North American ports like Los Angeles-Long Beach and Seattle-Tacoma, but also from ports along the eastern seaboard of the United States, as major global container carriers eye opportunities provided by an expanded Panama Canal and significant rate cuts offered from operators of the Suez Canal to move containers directly to the continent’s rich eastern markets without stopping at West Coast ports.
Container cargo growth at the Port of Vancouver and the Port of Prince Rupert has been robust over the past few years. But maintaining that growth is far from guaranteed, especially as major shipping lines, many taking on water from free-falling container rates and overcapacity on prime trade routes, form alliances to find efficiencies and invest in larger ships that make fewer stops at fewer ports.
Any significant migration of global container trade away from B.C.’s West Coast would take more than ships with it; it would take high-paying local port jobs.
That’s something that would really be worth protesting.
