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BCnature Winter 202224 BC Licence #34413Rated Excellent Explore our 2023 tour schedule online: www.eagle-eye.comof the Port of Prince Rupert as a priority over the already congested urban area around the Port of Vancouver. In February this year, Mr. Emsley was gratified when the Port of Prince of Rupert and container terminal operator DP orld announced a Wfeasibility study on adding capacity of 2-million TEU for Canada’s Asia-Pacific markets. However, the RBT2 Assessment Panel rejected considering Prince Rupert as a solution “because Prince Rupert is not within the Proponent’s [Port of Vancouver] jurisdiction.” While underscoring the Port of Vancouver’s dominance in the entire affair, it also raises a more fundamental question on Canada’s port governance structure.Zoran Knezevic’s regional strategy approach Zoran Knezevic, President and CEO of the Port of Alberni on the southern end of Vancouver Island, describes the Port of Vancouver, where he worked for 15 years, as “a lot of people pushing RBT2 while not considering the overall impacts of their project, which is going to create more congestion and not necessarily improve transportation as a whole.” He is critical of the Port of Vancouver for “not incorporating smaller ports into their plans to divert some of the congestion they have.” Mr. Knezevic said he proposed a plan to the federal government a few years ago for single administration for all the ports on the west coast. I think there is a lack of a regional strategy,” he said. His idea was identical to a Report solicited by The Honourable David Emerson, Minister for the Pacific Gateway in 2008 and still awaiting action under Mr. Emerson’s Port Modernization Review completed in 2016. One of the Report’s recommendations says: “It is of the utmost importance that our port authorities are aware they are not competing with one another, for there is no benefit to Canada of having its west coast ports in competition. We recommend that a single port authority be created.” If that recommendation had been implemented, what a different story this might have been! Ω Reprinted with permission from the Maritime Magazine, Canada’s leading quarterly publication on the maritime/multimodal industry for more than two decades.Continued from page 23