The Vancouver Fraser Port Authority welcomes the Government of Canada’s decision to approve the Roberts Bank Terminal 2 Project, announced following a rigorous environmental assessment process that started in 2013, according to the company's release.
The decision comes as Canada’s container trade remains on a long-term growth trajectory, with west coast marine container terminals forecast to hit capacity by the mid- to late-2020s.
The Roberts Bank Terminal 2 Project includes building new land and a new three-berth marine container terminal near existing port terminals at Roberts Bank in Delta, B.C. The project will incrementally deliver an additional 2.4 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of capacity, ultimately increasing Canada’s west coast container capacity by approximately one-third.
Besides enabling Canada’s growing trade, additional container terminal capacity at the Port of Vancouver will strengthen national supply-chain resilience, by creating additional “buffer” to handle cargo surges, such as those experienced through the pandemic, and support recovery from weather-related disruptions, such as the severe flooding that B.C. experienced in late 2021 that contributed to port cargo backlogs well into 2022.
The project will deliver substantial economic benefits, including more than 18,000 jobs during construction; more than 17,300 ongoing jobs; an estimated $3 billion in GDP annually once built; and $631 million in tax revenue to support services for Canadians.
The port authority is leading the project under its public-interest mandate as a federal agency, leveraging its long history of building high-quality sustainable infrastructure across the Lower Mainland, including— in partnership with container terminal operator DP World—the Centerm Expansion Project, which recently won a platinum Envision Award from the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure.
The Vancouver Fraser Port Authority is the federal agency responsible for the shared stewardship of the Port of Vancouver.