Port Metro Vancouver is running short of operating space, it has been reported.
According to the port’s latest annual report ‘Nowhere to Land’, it will need an extra 2,300 acres (930ha) by 2025 to deal with ballooning freight demands.
The report asserts: “Without a long-term solution to competing land use demands in Metro Vancouver, development pressures will continue to conflict, increasing pressure on important economic activity, jobs and tax revenue.”
Canada’s largest port operates along 640km of lower mainland shoreline and handles both freight and cruise passengers.
Port CEO Robin Silvester contends that residential and commercial developments have used land needed by the port industry.
Since 2012, Silvester has been calling on the province to establish an industrial land reserve.
The Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure said in response that it has no plans to create such a reserve at this time.
It issued a statement saying it understands the challenge of finding “suitable, cost-effective industrial lands and supportive of better utilisation of existing industrial land to help address the issue.”
Port Metro Vancouver handled 135 million tonnes of cargo last year, up from 122.5 million tonnes in 2011.
