3 October 2006
B.C. Looks to Polish Image to Boost Trade with China
Vancouver British Columbia - Industry, government and the
public must work together to convince customers in Asia that British Columbia is a viable gateway to North America, speakers told a
conference here Monday.
Asian customers still think of B.C. as having labour and capacity issues, Fred Green, president and CEO of Canadian Pacific Railway told
more than 500 delegates to the Canada-Asia Maritime Conference in Vancouver.
"They have this... historic perception, unfortunately, that we are a problem child," Green said.
That attitude has to change if Asia is going to have confidence in British Columbia as a destination for years to come, he said.
CP has increased its own capacity over the past few years and has worked with other stakeholders to share capacity, including an
historic co-production agreement with the Canadian National Railway Company.
"But at the end of the day, we're sitting here talking about how do we keep things going for two or three years," Green said.
"That's not what we as a country should be striving for. We should be striving to position ourselves as a gateway for 10 or 15 or
20 years and we have a long way to go to get that point," he said.
Last year's container truck work stoppage at Lower Mainland ports didn't help B.C.'s reputation, B.C.'s Minister of Transportation Kevin
Falcon told the conference.
"Everyone should be clear about the fact that this was a huge black eye for Canada and for British Columbia in terms of our
reliability as a port of entry," Falcon said.
So while the province as well as the terminals and railways are making investments in infrastructure to increase capacity, that could
all be for naught if the port isn't reliable, he said.
"[Because] if we have not got a reliable port then one phone call can shift a lot of those goods to different ports," Falcon
said.
The provincial government has committed $3 billion to improving transportation including building truck routes on both shores of the
Fraser River and twinning the Port Mann Bridge. Lower Mainland shipping terminals have invested $860 million to increase their capacity
and have plans for a further $1.2 billion in expansion.
The container truck shutdown was only the last in a series of problems at the ports. In 2004 tug boat operators went off the job for
eight days and in 2002 a four-month strike by the Grainworkers Union cut grain shipments from Vancouver.
And trouble at the ports may not be over as the two-year agreement that convinced container truck drivers to get back into
their rigs is set to expire next summer.
"I'd be lying to you if I didn't tell you that's a big worry," Falcon said.
Capt. Gordon Houston, president and CEO of the Vancouver Port Authority, believes stakeholders must act collectively to convince Asian
customers that B.C. ports are reliable.
What is needed is "a joint vision that we can then sell across the Pacific to really make sure people understand this gateway is
here and this gateway will survive and continue to grow," Houston told the delegates.
"Certainty is the issue," he said.
That includes the public who must be onside and understand what is being done and how it benefits society, Houston said.
Traffic at B.C. ports has increased dramatically over the past few years with container traffic surging 75 percent at Lower Mainland
ports between 2001 and 2005. By 2020, container traffic is forecast to triple, Falcon said in his keynote
address.
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