B.C. port expansion seeks fast-track by Canada’s new major projects office

Coal is loaded onto the bulk carrier vessel Fosep at the Westshore coal export terminal at Roberts Bank, in Tsawwassen, B.C., on Monday, September 9, 2024. (Darryl Dyck / The Canadian Press)

The company seeking to expand Metro Vancouver’s Deltaport terminal has applied for fast-track approval by Canada’s new major projects office.

The proposal by Global Container Terminals to add a fourth berth, expand a rail yard along the Roberts Bank causeway and undertake dredging to provide access for ships is currently under review by the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada.

But a statement from Global Container Terminals on Friday said it had submitted the project to the new federal office with a mandate to streamline regulatory approval and advance major projects it deems to be in the national interest.

The move came a day after Prime Minister Mark Carney unveiled a list of five projects for initial consideration by the office, including two in B.C.

B.C. Premier David Eby told a news conference on Thursday that exports from the port have been on the rise and expanding access is “crucially important.”

“We need to deliver potash from Saskatchewan out to global markets, other critical inputs for the global economy, leaving our port in Vancouver.”

The application by Global Container Terminals is the latest development in what has been a protracted battle over expansion options at the port complex.

The Vancouver Fraser Port Authority is the landlord for the Deltaport site, and it has favoured its own, separate expansion plan known as Roberts Bank Terminal 2.

The federal government has already approved that project, while the B.C. Environmental Assessment Office has also issued a certificate.

Ottawa’s approval was subject to a now-quashed court challenge by environmental groups claiming the project, which involves the construction of an artificial island, would threaten salmon and the survival of endangered killer whales.

A spokesperson for the port authority, communications adviser Arpen Rana, declined to comment on Global Container Terminals’ project.

But Rana said in an email that the port authority was “confident” its Roberts Bank terminal expansion is a “critical nation-building project” that will support Canada’s economic security and trade diversification and resilience.

“Roberts Bank Terminal 2 is the only significant trade expansion project on Canada’s west coast that is ready to start construction in the near term,” Rana said, adding the port authority had “consent” from 27 First Nations for the project.

The authority issued a statement in July saying it was searching for the best team to build the 100-hectare landmass for the new Roberts Bank terminal. Construction is expected to begin in 2028 with a target to begin operating by the mid-2030s.

The Impact Impact Assessment Agency website, meanwhile, shows the Deltaport expansion is in the impact-statement phase, awaiting details from the proponent.

B.C.’s Environmental Assessment Office is also reviewing the project. Details posted to the office’s website say the expansion would increase international shipping capacity at the facility by up to two million 20-foot shipping containers annually.

The plan includes a 44-hectare expansion of the terminal for handing containers, a 560-metre berth extension, a 12-hectare expansion of the existing rail yard, and a barge berth to accommodate future potential demand, the website says.

The B.C. projects already under consideration by the new federal office are the proposed expansion of the LNG Canada facility in Kitimat, which would double the country’s liquefied natural gas production capacity, and of the Red Chris copper and gold mine in the province’s northwest.

Eby is set to travel to Ottawa next week to advocate for the speedy assessment of projects in B.C.

“Look west, here’s where the prosperity for the country’s going to be,” the premier told Thursday’s news conference marking the start construction for the mine life expansion project at the Highland Valley Copper mine southwest of Kamloops.

This report by Brenna Owen of The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2025.