Final report - Integrated Land Management Bureau

Transportation Assessment of the Central & North Coast of BC
Farmed salmon is barged twice per week from Klemtu to Kitimat for 6 to 8 months
per year (this was formerly routed through Bella Coola), then trucked south. Fish
food is barged from Ocean Falls to Klemtu.
In the past barges were used to transport aluminum from Kitimat, but it is now
shipped by truck. Some heavy equipment has been barged recently to the Kitimat
harbour for a new construction project there.
Logs are frequently barged from coastal logging or heli-logging sites from several
Planning Area locations to the Lower Mainland. Log booms are transported only
south of Cape Caution, due to open sea conditions, while north of this point logs
are transported by barge.
Barges generally return from their destination empty, which increases the unit cost
of transportation. At least one barge operator has indicated that backhaul would
lower shipping costs, and that it is feasible in some cases, but it requires logistical
planning and effort to establish consistent sharing arrangements.
Log booming: There are 30 to 40 logging sites operated by the major licensees on
the Central and North Coast, but in the past year only about ten of these sites
were actively creating log booms. The others were either barging their logs, or
were dormant. Almost all log booms are transported to the Lower Mainland for
processing or further shipment.
2.2.6 Major Port Facilities
The Planning Area has many port and dock facilities, which are described in the
Community Assessment (Section 2.3). Due to their magnitude and international
trade significance, we focus here on the two deep water ports of Prince Rupert
and Kitimat.
PRINCE RUPERT
Since 2004, the management and board of the Port of Prince Rupert, BC
Government, federal government, and CN Rail have collaborated to fund the
construction of new facilities to broaden services and transform Prince Rupert into
a high performer that competes directly with the major western North America
ports. This public-private initiative has opened up the potential for a diverse range
of new transportation services at Prince Rupert and across northern BC. An
example is CN’s transload operation and intermodal rail terminal built at Prince
George in 2007, which loads containers that are shipped by rail to Prince Rupert
for backhauls on container vessels.
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