GOVERNMENT URGED TO REJECT RBT II

In 2021, Vancouver’s container terminals handled 3.52 million TEU, leaving little, if any spare capacity to keep pace with demand growth.

The project has been embroiled in a myriad of challenges including strong opposition from the environmental lobby.

Now a group of eminent scientists in Canada is urging the government’s Minister of Environment to reject the proposed expansion project, claiming it will threaten the ecosystem.

The scientists claim that the project, known as RBT II, will negatively impact Chinook salmon and Southern Resident killer whales. This, they suggest, creates a clear biological rationale for rejecting the project.

The release of the information comes at the same time as DP World and the Prince Rupert Port Authority (PRPA) are entering into a two-year agreement to assess the potential for a new container terminal in the Canadian port. The expansion could bring an additional two million TEU of annual capacity to the Port of Prince Rupert and represents the continuation of PRPA’s container terminal masterplan from 2019, which references an additional facility south of the existing Fairview Terminal.

The Canadian Government is due to issue its environmental assessment decision by the end of 2022 for RBT II.

Port Strategy will be assessing the supply-demand dynamics in the Canadian Pacific Gateway region in its April 2022 edition.