The federal Liberal government has spent billions of dollars over the past four years, and promised to spend billions more, to get people and goods moving faster. Has it worked? The Financial Post spoke with experts from industry, academia and government over the past six months about the costs of congestion and how to mitigate its burden on individuals and businesses. In part two of a three-part series, we focus on trade corridors.
In the year since the technology was introduced at GCT Deltaport, the time imported rail containers spend on-dock has dropped to 2.1 days, as of July, from an average of 4.4 days in 2018. The eight new electric-powered semi-automated cranes have fuelled labour strife with the longshore union over feared work reductions, but they’ve also made the terminal the most automated rail-loading facility in North America, perhaps, executives say, even the world.
Here, congestion occurs, roughly, when more than 85-to-90 per cent of the capacity at a given terminal is in use. As of last year, B.C.’s container ports operated at about 82-per-cent capacity, said GCT chief executive Doron Grosman in an interview, a sweet spot where movement isn’t clogged, but the assets are working hard.
The federal Liberals haven’t ignored the ports in their infrastructure spending spree. A series of summertime funding announcements even prompted the Conservatives to complain to the elections commissioner in advance of the October vote.Peter Xotta, vice-president of planning and operations, Vancouver Fraser Port Authority This week, the feds will announce a $153.
“The Government of Canada, because of the incredible demand for this program, the popularity, if I can put it that way, realized a while back … we should spend it more quickly,” Transport Minister Marc Garneau said. The Liberals built on that funding as officials signed off on two major trade deals: the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement in 2016 and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership in 2018. The government also renegotiated the North American Free Trade Agreement, but that has yet to officially pass, making the push to diversify trade all the more critical.
Ports, which, by the nature of their investments must plan five, 10, even 20 years in the future, also expect trade to recover in the long term. Trade tensions, particularly with China, could be acute and painful in the short term, but the Port of Vancouver’s Xotta said he’s optimistic relations will stabilize in the medium term.Transport Minister Marc Garneau “People want what Canada has,” he said. “We have high-quality, stable, reliable sources of supply for food products.