The Port of Vancouver is the largest port in Canada and the fourth largest in North America by tonnes of cargo, facilitating trade between Canada and more than 170 world economies. The port is managed by the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority, which was created in 2008 as an amalgamation of the former Port of Vancouver, the North Fraser Port Authority, and the Fraser River Port Authority. It is the principal authority for shipping and

port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as H ...

-related land and sea use in the

Metro Vancouver The Metro Vancouver Regional District (MVRD), or simply Metro Vancouver, is a Canadian political subdivision and corporate entity representing the metropolitan area of Greater Vancouver, designated by provincial legislation as one of the 28 ...

region.

History

Predecessors

Prior to the formation of the new authority, there were three separate port authorities in the

region: the

Port of Vancouver The Port of Vancouver is the largest port in Canada and the fourth largest in North America by tonnes of cargo, facilitating trade between Canada and more than 170 world economies. The port is managed by the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority, whic ...

, which was the largest port in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

; the Fraser River Port Authority; and the North Fraser Port Authority. The Vancouver Port Authority was responsible for the

, which was the largest port in Canada and the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Tho ...

. The port had 25 major terminals. The port first began operations with the opening of Ballantyne Pier in 1923. In 2005/2006, the port handled 79.4 million tonnes of cargo, 1.8 million containers, 910,172 cruise passengers, and 2,677 foreign vessels. The authority was responsible for 233 km of coastline from

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

to the Canada–United States border. The Fraser River Port Authority was created in 1913 to manage ports along the Fraser River. It was the second largest port in Vancouver and extended along the main arm of the river eastward to the

Fraser Valley The Fraser Valley is a geographical region in southwestern British Columbia, Canada and northwestern Washington State. It starts just west of Hope in a narrow valley encompassing the Fraser River and ends at the Pacific Ocean stretching from the ...

at Kanaka Creek, and north along the Pitt River to Pitt Lake. The Port's jurisdiction encompassed 270 kilometres of shoreline that border nine different municipalities in the Lower Mainland. In 2007, the port handled 36 million tonnes of cargo, 191,000 TEUs of containerized cargo, and 573 cargo vessels. The cargo at the port consisted of logs, cement, general cargo, steel, and automobiles. Its tenants included several large auto ports, making it the largest auto port in Canada. The North Fraser Port Authority was incorporated in 1913 as the North Fraser Harbour Commissioners. It was the smallest of the three ports and was located on the north arm of the Fraser River from the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks among the top thre ...

New Westminster New Westminster (colloquially known as New West) is a city in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia, Canada, and a member municipality of the Metro Vancouver Regional District. It was founded by Major-General Richard Moody as the capi ...

. The traffic of the port mainly consisted of logs and wood fibre. The port covered around 920 hectares of land and water lots and it handled nearly 18 million tonnes of cargo in 2004.

Merger

Although the ports were financially self-sufficient, the federal legislation governing the authorities generated some inefficiency because the port authorities, legally separate entities, were forced to compete with each other economically for business. This inefficiency came to the attention of the local media in 2006 when it was found that the recently expanded Fraser Surrey Docks, operated by the Fraser River Port Authority in

, were sitting idle after their principal shipping partner,

CP Ships CP Ships was a large Canadian shipping company established in the 19th century. From the late 1880s until after World War II, the company was Canada's largest operator of Atlantic and Pacific steamships. Many immigrants travelled on CP ships f ...

, relocated to the Port of Vancouver, already nearing capacity. Some critics opposed the possible merger as they felt the new authority would not recognize the unique concerns of the Fraser River. To increase the efficiency of the ports of

, the federal

Minister of Transport A ministry of transport or transportation is a ministry responsible for transportation within a country. It usually is administered by the ''minister for transport''. The term is also sometimes applied to the departments or other government a ...

permitted the three authorities to study the benefits of amalgamating in June 2006. The resulting report highlighted several benefits of amalgamation, and on June 16,

Transport Canada Transport Canada (french: Transports Canada) is the department within the Government of Canada responsible for developing regulations, policies and services of road, rail, marine and air transportation in Canada. It is part of the Transporta ...

granted a "certificate of intent to amalgamate port authorities". On December 21, 2007, the government of

published a certificate of amalgamation that allowed the three port authorities to merge into one effective January 1, 2008. The resulting entity became known as Port Metro Vancouver.

Post-merger

Since 2013, the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority also merged with Canada Place Corporation, which formerly operated

Canada Place Canada Place is a building situated on the Burrard Inlet in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It is home to the Vancouver Convention Centre, the Pan Pacific Vancouver Hotel, the Vancouver World Trade Centre, and the virtual flight ride Fl ...

as a subsidiary of Port of Vancouver. On April 6, 2016, the port authority dropped "Port Metro Vancouver" from its branding and re-adopted "Port of Vancouver" to refer to Vancouver's port, while using "Vancouver Fraser Port Authority" when referencing activities or decisions of the port authority.

Responsibility

The Port of Vancouver is managed by the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority, formerly called Port Metro Vancouver. It was created with the responsibility for the stewardship of the federal port lands in and around Vancouver, British Columbia. It was created as a financially self-sufficient company that is accountable to the federal minister of transport and operates pursuant to the ''

Canada Marine Act The ''Canada Marine Act'' (CMA; french: Loi maritime du Canada) (the Act) was passed in 1998 under the stewardship of David Collenette, who was Canada's Minister of Transport at that time. It was intended to modernize Canada's most important port ...

.'' The port authority and port terminals and tenants are responsible for the efficient and reliable movement of goods and passengers, integrating environmental, social and economic sustainability initiatives into all areas of port operations. In 2014, the Port of Vancouver was the fourth largest port by tonnage in the Americas, 29th in the world in terms of total cargo and 44th in the world by container traffic. The port enables the trade of approximately $240 billion in goods. Port activities sustain 115,300 jobs, $7 billion in wages, and $11.9 billion in GDP across Canada.

Major initiatives

The Container Capacity Improvement Program (CCIP) is the port's long-term strategy to meet anticipated growth in container traffic, which is expected to triple by the year 2030. The program consists of projects that both improve the efficiency of existing infrastructure and explore opportunities to build new infrastructure as demand rises. CCIP projects include the Deltaport Terminal Road and Rail Improvement Project (DTRRIP) and the proposed Roberts Bank Terminal 2 project. DTTRIP will result in infrastructure upgrades that would increase Deltaport's container capacity by 600,000 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units), within the terminal's existing footprint. The Roberts Bank Terminal 2 project is a proposed marine container terminal that could provide an additional capacity of 2.4 million TEUs per year to meet forecasted demand until 2030.

North Shore Trade Area projects

* Western Level Lower Level Route Extension * Pemberton Avenue Grade Separation * Low Level Road Realignment * Neptune/Cargill Grade Separation * Brooksbank Avenue Underpass
* Lynn Creek Rail Bridge Addition

South Shore Trade Area projects

* Powell Street Grade Separation * Stewart Street/Victoria Overpass

Environmental initiatives

* Enhancing Cetacean Habitat and Observation (ECHO) Program (2014-2021)

Terminals and facilities

Port of Vancouver offers 30 deep-sea and domestic marine terminals that service five business sectors: automobiles, break-bulk, bulk, containers, and cruise.

Automobile terminals

* Annacis Auto Terminals * Richmond Auto Terminal

Break-bulk terminals

* Fraser Surrey Docks * Lynnterm

Bulk terminals

* Alliance Grain Terminal * Cargill * Cascadia * Chemtrade Chemicals * Fibreco * Fraser Grain Terminal * G3 Terminal Vancouver * IOCO * Lantic Inc. * Neptune Bulk Terminals * Pacific Coast Terminals * Pacific Elevators * Parkland Terminal *

Richardson International Richardson International Limited is a privately held Canadian agricultural and food industry company headquartered in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The company is one of several companies that are owned by James Richardson & Sons Limited. The company ...

* Shellburn * Suncor Energy - Burrard Products Terminal * Univar Canada Terminal * Vancouver Wharves * West Coast Reduction * Westridge Marine Terminal * Westshore Terminals

Container terminals

* Centerm * Deltaport * Fraser Surrey Docks * Vanterm

Cruise terminals

Incidents

In January 2019, the cargo ship Ever Summit crashed into a crane. There was no death or injuries.

References

External links

International Shipping in British Columbia
{{coord, 49.28795, N, 123.11267, W, display=title Transport in Greater Vancouver

Economy of Vancouver Port authorities in Canada