There's much happening on several fronts at Roberts Bank.
In an interview with the Delta Optimist, Robin Silvester, president and CEO of Port Metro Vancouver, discussed several of the major topics related to the container and coal facilities.
Recently, a big concern has arisen in Canada over the possibility the U.S. could impose new duties on containers coming from Canadian ports. The U.S. Federal Maritime Commission agreed to study possible unfair practices by Ottawa for this country's container ports, raising fears of a damaging trade war
Saying he doubted the U.S. would go so far as to impose tariffs on containers, since it would fly in the face of the North American Free Trade Agreement, Silvester believes if it were to happen the impacts for the Deltaport container terminal would be minimal.
"If you look at the nature of the trade that happens in containers at Deltaport, it's 90 to 95 per cent Canadian trade. We had around eight per cent U.S. business last year, but it's a really small proportion of what we do," he explained.
"As we plan for capacity, we plan out based on what we see the Canadian economy needing. So our forecast of volume growth over the long term are based on the best projections we see of Canadian GDP (gross domestic product) and then how that correlates to container demand. It's a well proven correlation between GDP and container volume," Silvester said, adding, "It's unlikely the U.S. would put a traffic on U.S trade through Canada, but even if they did, it's a small part of the business we do."
As far as the possibility of a foreign trade zone being established on Tsawwassen First Nation industrial land to complement port business, Silvester pointed out there's a lot of confusion and misconceptions what the zones are all about.
He said the zones are not exempt from labour laws or environmental regulations.
"It really is about trade-related duties and taxes and deferral of those duties. So it's a very well proven model. All the G8 nations except Canada have this model very clearly established," Silvester said.
"Canada has a lot of the individual components of a foreign trade zone model established, but they haven't been pulled together in a way that makes them efficiently used for an importer and exporter.
There's a great opportunity in Canada to tweak some of its regulations, which are about the deferral of tax and duty, and get some significant benefit in terms of economic activity and number of jobs," he said.
"Where it would be most relevant in the Delta context is in the TFN industrial lands. They have the potential to add some important capacity to the intermodal supply chain, and the free trade zone development would, I think, bring that development to fruition in a very positive way."
On another front, the TFN last summer signed a memorandum of understanding with Port Metro Vancouver to develop the TFN's industrial land under a joint venture structure. Studies are currently underway on the feasibility.
Silvester said that development doesn't depend on the establishment of a foreign trade zone.
"We've had a number of discussions with the TFN and we're looking at opportunities to work together on what we see is the need for industrial capacity related to the port. In the long term, we have a big concern about the loss of industrial land in the Lower Mainland and we've had discussions about the pressure that puts on agricultural land as a consequence," he said.
Responding to recent criticism by Delta South MLA Vicki Huntington over his comments regarding agricultural land, Silvester said he's simply conveying concerns about the loss of industrial land.
It's a result of industrial land being taken over by residential development, which, unfortunately, has the trickle down effect of pressure placed on agriculturally zoned land, he noted.
"What I'm saying to a lot of stakeholders, including the board of Metro Vancouver, is there's a really important conversation we need to have here that we haven't had, and if we don't take responsibility for having a conversation about how can we more effectively plan use of land in the Lower Mainland in the future, we face some severe consequences which can be very detrimental to the economy.
"We're all worried because of this pressure on loss of land and growth in population. I'm firmly of the view that the more we can have open and honest conversation, and robust conversations, about this, the better we have of finding a solution that meets everybody's needs."
As far as new initiatives, Silvester pointed out the biggest and most relevant for South Delta is the Deltaport Road and Rail Improvement Project, which is nearing the end of the public consultation phase.
The port authority also started pre-consultations as well as studies on a proposed new three-berth container terminal at Roberts Bank, called T2.
The port authority last week released its 2011 year-end results, showing it handled 122.5 million tonnes of cargo, a 3.4 per cent increase over 2010. Total foreign and domestic tonnage both increased.
Canada's natural resources volumes also continued to show strong growth, with new records set in coal, potash and forest products exports.
Port Metro Vancouver says the strong, stable numbers point to continued growth in the key sectors.
