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Delta ideal for new truck-trailer park, Bishop says

The City of Delta’s large supply of industrial-park lands could make the municipality an ideal location for a new truck-trailer park, two-term councillor and Team Delta mayoral candidate Sylvia Bishop said this week in a news release.
bishop
Sylvia Bishop

The City of Delta’s large supply of industrial-park lands could make the municipality an ideal location for a new truck-trailer park, two-term councillor and Team Delta mayoral candidate Sylvia Bishop said this week in a news release.

“Three months ago Team Delta and I announced our intention, if successful in winning election to council on Oct. 20, to set up our city’s first-ever Economic Development Office,” said Bishop. “One of the projects that the new office promptly will explore is the development of a new truck-trailer park to facilitate the Lower Mainland’s booming transportation sector.”

Statistics Canada reports that truck-transportation composes nearly 1.1 per cent of British Columbia’s nominal gross domestic product, making it larger than either forestry/logging or mining.

B.C.’s GDP is expected by the Ministry of Finance to reach $291.7 billion in 2018, which puts trucking’s annual contribution to the provincial economy at about $3 billion. That latter number represents ‘for-hire trucking’ only; it does not include private trucks carrying goods for their own companies.

“We expect so see trucking activity in and around Delta to grow dramatically in the foreseeable future,” Bishop said. “For example, the newly-announced Amazon fulfillment centre on Tsawwassen First Nation land represents an additional 450,000 square feet of warehousing space in operation in Deltaport, and it’s expected to be open for business by Christmas 2019.”

Simran Walia, a newcomer to municipal politics who is seeking election to Delta’s council as a member of Team Delta, also referenced growing truck traffic passing through the BC Ferry terminal at Tsawwassen, the opening of the South Fraser Perimeter Road in 2013, and the imminent likelihood of a new Fraser River crossing.

“B.C.’s Ministry of Transportation has stated that Highways 99 and 91 are ‘key components’ of the Lower Mainland’s truck transportation network, which ‘supports local, provincial, and international trade’,” said Walia. “On week days, approximately 7,000 trucks per day pass through the George Massey Tunnel, and another 9,000 trucks per day drive over the Alex Fraser Bridge. Those numbers are increasing annually so the necessity of additional truck-trailer facilities is obvious.”

Bishop added that a 2015 report by Metro Vancouver found that the City of Delta had 13 per cent of the regional district’s industrial lands.

“Delta has almost 1,500 hectares – or more than 3,600 acres – of industrial land,” said Bishop. “Part of the mandate of our proposed Economic Development Office will be to take a very close look at the opportunities available for future investment and growth in transportation and trucking.”