Port of Prince Rupert Planning For Massive Growth in Trade
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(Prince Rupert Port Authority CEO Don Krusel expects major growth in Asian trade. Photo 250 News)
Prince George, B.C. – The message from the Port of Prince Rupert is loud and clear: the volume of Asian trade traffic moving through the port is going to expand substantially and the benefits of that trade will be felt not just at the coast, but across the province.
The President and CEO of the Prince Rupert Port Authority, Don Krusel, told a Prince George Chamber of Commerce luncheon Thursday that population growth in Asia is staggering, noting that Shanghai’s population rose from 12 to 23 million people over a 13 year period. He says similar growth elsewhere in Asia, particularly in the size of the middle class, means that demand for North American products and resources will be huge, and that demand should be met through the support of trade agreements. “Trade is what creates prosperity for us and we need to be looking to Asia for our trade and we should be supporting all these trade agreements that the governments are trying to establish with Asia.”
Krusel says “we often struggle in Prince Rupert outing out to Prince George residents that what we do in Prince Rupert is just an important for communities like Prince George, Burns Lake, Houston, Mackenzie and even places as far away as Saskatchewan. In fact 70% of inbound containers that move through our container facility find their way into the United States to places like Chicago, Memphis and Cincinnati. So Prince Rupert is truly not just the port of Prince Rupert it’s the port of North America.”
He says Prince Rupert is geographically the closest port to the Asian market and Prince George can be connected through the coastal port to that expanding market. “We today are engaged primarily to the export of forest products, agri- food products, energy products, coal and coke, and import consumer and manufactured goods. Over $6 billion in trade moves through Prince Rupert every year meaning, because the rail system that connects Rupert to the rest of North America goes through Prince George, $6 billion worth of trade travels through this city every year.”
Krusel says people need to remember that the port of Prince Rupert is just one member of a massive supply chain across this corridor and there are many key players, “whether they be shipping companies, marine service providers, railways, trucking companies and warehouse logistics. All of them make up the supply chain and the performance capacity of any of those members of the supply chain dictate whether or not the chain is going to be successful. He says the gateway industry that B.C. is growing is really a service industry. ”We’re selling those services to the world, but we’re in competition. Container ships coming to Prince Rupert have a choice, they can just as easily go to Seattle-Tacoma and use that gateway into the North American marketplace or Los Angeles or Long Beach. So we need to provide the best service that we can.”
“One of the greatest myths being perpetuated is that goods passing through British Columbia provide no economic benefit to BC.” He says jobs across northern BC, whether they be jobs on the railway, in mills or in mines “are all connected to moving goods through this corridor. Without trade, and without that service gateway industry, those jobs would not exist. There’s $130 million of wages that relate to the movement of those goods.”
Krusel says its important to improve the tools and infrastructure needed to supply the trade. “Prince Rupert is ideally located. We have close proximity to the resources, we have room to grow and we are able to solve the capacity issues that are challenging the trade industry, and we have CN Rail “which has lots of capacity on its line which connects Prince Rupert to the rest of North America. In fact the CN network and all of their line agreements with other railways connects Prince Rupert to over 70% of the population of North America.”
Krusel says there is unprecedented growth ahead, with 1.2 million containers moving through the port each year by the end of this year, up from 800,000. As far as shipping is concerned he says "Prince Rupert already has one of the safest and most secure harbours in the world. But we recognize that vessel traffic is going to grow from the current 450 deep sea vessel visits per year to 12-hundred to 15-hundred vists a year in the next ten to fifteen years. And we're not just allowing that to happen without critical planning. We are, right today, inviting experts from around the world to come to Prince Rupert to help us improve on that." He says concerns have been expressed about these areas and for that reason the Port Authority is busy increasing the dialogue about what’s happening in Prince Rupert and will be utilizing social media to get its message out to northern British Columbia.
Comments
Way to go Don and your crew. You have don a helluva job, and Prince Rupert has been lucky to have you in their cit. This is all part of whats been building the great prosperity ahead for our great Province.
When we have great industry leaders like Don Krusel in our Cities and a great government and Leader in Victoria like Christy Clark and the provincial Liberals, this province has got it made. May the NDP never,ever get to power in BC and ruin it all.
of course should be “done” and “city”
Been a long day already
Yes gimmeabreak – BC has the highest rate of child poverty in Canada- thanks to provincial Liberals and Christy who stress that ” family is first”.
yes woodwoman – imagine how high it would be with the NDP grinding business to a halt and the unemployment rate doubling. That will show those pesky poor kids!
Omg! Give me a break! I think I just threw up in my mouth a little.
As they know very well in Prince Rupert a rising tide will lift all boats. The increased economic activity in this area will allow those that are unemployed to find a job or those underemployed to find a better a better job to the benefit of their kids.
If you are talking welfare it is there to provide the basic necessities in part to discourage lifelong use. Even if the rates were raised i can see the neighbourhood herb-ologists and “pharmacists” getting a good portion of the increases.
woodwoman wrote: “Yes gimmeabreak – BC has the highest rate of child poverty in Canada- thanks to provincial Liberals and Christy who stress that ” family is first”.”
I am tired of reading and correcting such nonsense. BC does not have the best record in Canada, that is true, but it is not the highest rate of child poverty. If I recall correctly, when a consistent measurement is used across Canada.
Learn to post your source when you make claims that are fact based!!
woodwoman do you even know what Stats Can classifies as child poverty? I doubt it….so I did a little bit of checking.
First, they look at families earning less than $21,400 in income. If you have kids and earn under this amount then your household is a “yes” for the child poverty category.
Now when most people think “child poverty” I bet they think can’t pay the bills, no frills and struggling just to put food on the table.
But this stat isn’t saying that at all. It just puts everyone in this category if they meet the criteria. There’s no phone calls, site visits or questionnaires. So is it a concrete stat…..I would say no.
There could be a lot of people that earn $21K and are doing ok. Maybe they live in a home they inherited from their parents or don’t ever eat at a restaurant. Not everyone lives on credit or has a mortgage.
So I would argue that it’s a stat. BC is a pretty prosperous Province and I doubt they ignore children in need.
blog/view/30551/1/five+new+year's+resolutions+for+b.c.’s+politicians
Some previous postings on the matter of child poverty on this site.
mwk brings up additional consideration ….one has to understand the methodology used to measure something that has many more subjective consideration that should be used rather than attempting to break everything down to numbers which often are not reflective of the real day to day situation.
Prince Rupert Port Authority Traffic Summary shows the following for containers.
2012 Total TEU’S (Twenty foot equivalent containers)—–564,856.65
2013 Total TEU’S—–536,439.25
Variance -5.03%.
So for containers between 2012 and 2013 we have a decrease.
Although the statement that Prince Rupert to the US Midwest, and Eastern Canada, is a good service route is true, they always neglect to mention that the reverse is not true.
Containers loaded in Prince Rupert travel to Vancouver, then to the US West Coast before they go to China. So one could say the service for container ships out of Prince Rupert sucks.
As an example the Container Ship Cosco Felixstowe left Prince Rupert on Feb. 9th and is now docked in Vancouver, unloading and loading containers, after which it will go to the USA and do the same.
As far as this area is concerned it matters little whether the pulp, lumber, etc goes through Prince Rupert, or Vancouver. As I said before, A Port, is a Port, is a Port.
Rails miles to Prince Rupert, approx. 450, Rail miles to Vancouver on old BC Rail tracks approx. 450. So whats the big deal.
Trains have been going through Prince George to and from Prince Rupert for over 80 years. Nothing new here,. They have a long way to go to get to where they were in the 70’s and 80’s.
Prince Rupert and the rest of the West Coast will be facing some stiff competition once the Panama Canal expansion is completed. Krusel knows this, however he doesn’t mention it.
While China may very well increase its imports and exports, these increases will be for the whole world, and Prince Rupert, is a very small part of a huge picture.
I can see some major increases in coal, wheat, and concentrate, but that’s about it.
Now that China has lifted their one child [per married couple] ban,,,Their country will blossom,,,for the better, I doubt, but give it 20 years.
Time to double track the CN line
Yes, we do have the highest child poverty in Canada.
Slick Don comes to tell us nothing but talking points and try to sell the mime of trade agreements like FIPA and TPP that will strip our country of its sovereignty in the race to the bottom. Slicks it up as something that will benefit all of us… gets some good points with the corpocracy and the clapping seals, while everyone else is asleep and misses the point entirely.
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