Posted on February 16, 2022
After a year-long pause, the spotlight is back on a controversial proposal to double the size of the container terminal at Canada’s busiest port. The $3.5 billion expansion, called Robert Banks Terminal 2, is intended to increase capacity at the Delta, B.C., terminal.
While the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority, a federal Crown corporation, has been pushing for this project for more than a decade, many scientists, First Nations, conservation groups, locals and even one of the port’s own tenants have vocally opposed it.
This week, 12 scientists are voicing their concerns about the potential impacts of the terminal expansion on more than 100 at-risk species, including endangered Chinook salmon and southern resident killer whales, in a signed letter to the federal Minister of Environment and Climate Change Steven Guilbeault.
“If the recovery of Canada’s endangered and iconic wildlife is a priority for the government of Canada, as stated, then it must reject the proposed Terminal 2 project,” the letter reads.
If built, the new terminal would require an artificial island about the size of 150 football fields in the heart of the Fraser River estuary.
The Fraser River is the largest salmon-bearing river in Canada and it spills into the estuary, where juvenile salmon grow and adjust to saltwater life before making their way into the ocean. The estuary is also internationally recognized as an important bird and biodiversity area. Millions of birds stop at the estuary to rest and replenish partway through their journeys along the Pacific flyway, a migration route that extends from Alaska to Peru.
The project has been under federal environmental review since 2013 and it looks like it’s nearing the end of the process.
Right now observers, including the scientists who wrote the letter, are rushing to be part of a public comment period, which ends March 15. It’s likely to be their last chance to provide feedback on the project before a decision is made.
The environmental review timeline was paused when the previous environment minister asked the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority for more information about the project in 2020. The port authority responded in December of 2021, which triggered the public comment period.
If Guilbeault decides he has all of the information he needs to make a decision, the review process resumes and the minister must decide within 89 days whether he believes the project is likely to have “significant adverse environmental effects.”
But the buck doesn’t stop there. If the minister decides the project will have adverse impacts, the decision is passed to the Governor in Council — meaning the Governor General acting on the advice of the federal cabinet — to decide if negative environmental effects are justified if the project is in the public interest.
