The Vancouver government’s proposed plans to initiate a port privatisation scheme have been strongly condemned by the port’s President and CEO, Robin Silvester, reported the Vancouver Sun.
In a recent speech given to the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade, Silvester said that selling Canada’s largest port was a rash decision that would not benefit the port in the long term. He described the process of privatisation as a sincere “threat” to any future development and growth.
Silvester went on to say, “The problem my organisation could end up being faced with is that suddenly an amount of money we’ve been using to increase capacity in the gateway is now going toward servicing debt for a lot of money some entity has paid the government to take over the port”.
Robin Silvester has claimed that he expresses the views of many other high-level Canadian administrators and that privatisation.
Just last month, Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party led government called on Morgan Stanley Canada to undertake a review detailing the possibility of the country putting its 18 federally run ports up for sale. The future of the nation’s airports are also in doubt as the government is looking to implement similar privatisation plans.
PTI recently covered an investment into two Canadian ports through a DP World partnership with aisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ).
