It’s been a while since I waxed poetic about ports. Last year I went on at some length about Port Metro Vancouver, how it’s this engine of Canadian economic growth, moving monumental quantities of trade in an understated, almost hum drum way. An even more unsuspecting area of port activity is, of all places, up in Prince Rupert. In recent years, this ‘little port that could’ has become an engine for growth in Northern BC, posting record cargo volumes and attracting considerable investment from all levels of government. And no wonder – with the shortest sailing time to Asia and uninterrupted CN lines servicing far flung hubs such as Winnipeg, and Chicago, Rupert Port is making everyone sit up and take notice, as North America’s fastest growing container faciilty. Not bad for such a remote community.
Prince Rupert's Container Terminal
There is no signs of a slow down either with 2011 marking yet another record breaking year for the port. A few killer numbers:
- 19.3 million tonnes of cargo moved through the port altogether, an increase of 18 per cent over 2010.
- Total coal tonnage shipped from Ridley Terminals Inc. (RTI) to Korea, China and Japan was up 16 per cent over 2010. (9.64 million tonnes of product compared to 8.30 million tones).
- The number of loaded containers shipped out through Prince Rupert was up 59 per cent from 2010, with much of the growth attributed to strong exports of B.C. forest products to the expanding Chinese market.
- Grain exports, principally to China, increased 17 per cent, from 4.29 million tonnes in 2010 to five million tonnes in 2011.
This brings me to a question to which I don’t know the answer: Is all this growth even good? After all, we’re selling millions of tonnes of dirty coal to China, aren’t we? Heck, the rail lines to Prince Rupert are so good, even major coal mines in Washington don’t think twice about carting their product up to Prince Rupert to benefit from quick transit times to China. People in Northern BC would stare when asked if they support the Prince Rupert boom. Trade demand from China will completely transform the economy and labour market of BC’s North in the coming years – standards of living, incomes, education opportunities and services will all benefit as a result.
As long as we have the goods and China wants them the ‘good times’ will keep on rolling. In my opinion Endbridge is not a question of ‘if’, but really just a question of ‘when’…