Editor: Robin Silvester, CEO of Port Metro Vancouver, is now saying that for the port to keep growing they need an Industrial Land Reserve. On the face of it this seems reasonable - until that is you look at the port's expansion plans.
Rather than using industrial land for their next expansion - a second container port in Delta - they plan to denigrate Roberts Bank, one of the most important ecosystems on the West Coast, by constructing a man-made island one third the size of Stanley Park. If this were to go ahead it would compromise a critical stop on the Pacific Flyway for millions of migratory and other shorebirds and likely cause population
level declines for the Western Sandpiper. It will also result in changes to tidal flows further impacting juvenile salmon runs, as well destroying productive eel grass and crab habitat.
To justify their manmade island Mr. Silvester keeps trotting out the same tired old story about jobs that the port creates. The only problem is that the majority of jobs he claims the container port will create are not directly port related and are likely to exist whether the port expands or not. Furthermore the proposed second container terminal would be so mechanized anyway that very few permanent jobs would be created.
The reality is that port container traffic is not growing at anything close to their forecasts and an additional container port on Roberts Bank is not needed now or in the foreseeable future.
Port Metro Vancouver claims that it is looking forward to "... a future of sustainable prosperity where we leave a strong positive legacy for future generations."
The strongest legacy that Port Metro Vancouver could leave for future generations is a Roberts Bank free of any further port expansion. That is the true definition of sustainability - not one where the environment and community are subservient to the port's inflated business plans.
Roger Emsley
