Final report - Integrated Land Management Bureau

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Transportation Assessment of the Central & North Coast of BC and lead to strategies that could guide transportation infrastructure providers and services, communities, businesses and investors to incorporate into their own thinking and plans. In the longer term, it may also be beneficial for the coastal regions to participate in the international Pacific Coast Collaboration. ► Issue: Barge service is high cost and infrequent A complex system of privately owned tugs, barges, and log booms ply the waters of the LRMP Plan area, transporting supplies, fuel and freight into the area from Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland, and shipping resource products out. The barges hauling food, fuel, seafood, forest products, building materials, equipment and other supplies often serve multiple customers, including combinations of community and corporate customers. When corporate activity slumps in a sector, such as the current situation with the coastal forest industry, deliveries to communities are negatively affected, as there is less frequent service and higher cost (if a barge is not full). BC Ferries carries a limited amount of freight on its three northern services but does not see hauling freight and supplies as part of its strategic mandate. BC Ferries does a good job of moving people and vehicles along the major and minor “marine highways” of the coast. The marine highways are also there, however, for moving freight and products, not fundamentally dissimilar to the role of other highways around the province. Almost all barges -- the water borne trucks -- which travel into the Planning Area from the south return empty, which means less frequent delivery of food and other supplies to communities, higher transportation costs/lower net revenues for contractors of barge services, and higher costs for buyers of barged products if part or all of those costs can be passed on, and ultimately less cost competitive products from the North and Central Coast. The rising and fluctuating cost of fuel raises the risk for new private investment to those communities that need more frequent service. This is a “bad business model” according to a major barge operator on the Central and North Coast. Some amelioration would come from arranging partially filled or full backhauls. However this answer generally requires considerable planning among shippers at both ends of the route. It requires knowing and planning for customers’ monthly volume shipments. A solution likely lies with a collaborative endeavour, possibly a linkage between a new northern ferry services provider from the private sector and one or more barge operators, whereby information on space and bookings on ferries and barges is monitored and distributed from a centralized web-based system. There are presently several coast-, Vancouver Island-, and Lower Mainlandbased barge companies serving the Central and North Coast, and we understand Chisholm Consulting 80
Transportation Assessment of the Central & North Coast of BC that one is now contemplating the opportunity of a new scheduled run from Campbell River to Prince Rupert in 2009 assuming the market proves to be a productive venture. Reducing the number of empty backhauls, increasing barge frequency to communities, and lowering barge service cost will require BC Government leadership because of the multiplicity of players and interests embedded in this issue. This issue is not in need of a government solution and is not a matter of imposing a new arrangement but of leading a collaborative process that improves services and reduces costs. The issue is a marine “trucking” problem and will have to be solved by marine freight transport providers and their many customers but the lack of one or two major players means a BC Government facilitation and leadership role would be helpful. ► Issue: The Canadian Marine Act puts Prince Rupert at a financial disadvantage compared to US ports In the early years of 2000, the Port of Prince Rupert was focused on a few commodities, grain, coal and pulp, and throughput volumes of each were declining. The SCI pulp mill closed in June 2001 and its new owners, first New Skeena Forest Products and then Sun Wave, were unable to get it re-financed and operational. The last Tumbler Ridge coal mine, Bullmoose, closed in 2003. In the wake of these difficult economic events, Port of Prince Rupert leadership, in collaboration with CN Rail, BC Government and other partners, embarked on diversifying its services and customers by planning and organizing the financing for large cruise ship and container terminals and obtaining a major operator for the new container terminal. With the openings of the new cruise ship terminal for the 2004 Alaska cruise season and Phase I of the Fairview Terminal in October 2007, many new economic opportunities became available for Prince Rupert area residents and BC communities along the CN Rail line. New or expanded tourism excursions have started, and there is greatly heightened awareness of the importance and potential of tourism as an economic generator. New port jobs have been created in container movement, customs, security, and logistics. A new inter-modal facility was built at Prince George, and port management continues to make arrangements to expand port facilities, such as the Canpotex potash terminal project. There have been some recent setbacks in the port’s expansion. Westpac moved the proposed location of its LNG project to Texada Island in the Strait of Georgia in early 2007 60 and the current worldwide economic difficulties has led to a delay in going forward with the Phase II expansion of the container 60 Calgary headquartered Westpac LNG entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the Prince Rupert Port Authority for a 30-year lease in mid 2006 for a liquified natural gas terminal on Ridley Island but cancelled the project in early 2007 and announced that it instead planned to build a LNG terminal and associated gas-fired electricity generating plant on Texada Island in the Strait of Georgia. Chisholm Consulting 81
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Transportation Assessment of the Ce
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TABLE OF CONTENTS Executive Summary
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Transportation Assessment of the No
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TABLE 1: SUMMARY OF KEY CENTRAL AND
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Issues and Recommendations Transpor
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Transportation Assessment of the No
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1. INTRODUCTION Transportation Asse
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FIGURE 1: MAP OF LRMP PLAN AREA Sou
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Source: Statistics Canada, Census 2
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TABLE 2-3: MUNICIPAL POPULATION TRE
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2.1.3 Economy Transportation Assess
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Source: Statistics Canada, Census 2
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Page 41 and 42: Transportation Assessment of the Ce
Page 51 and 52: 2.3 Communities 2.3.1 Central Coast
Page 53 and 54: WAGLISLA (BELLA BELLA) Transportati
Page 55 and 56: KLEMTU Transportation Assessment of
Page 59 and 60: OCEAN FALLS Transportation Assessme
Page 61 and 62: LAX KWA’ALAAMS Transportation Ass
Page 65 and 66: OONA RIVER Transportation Assessmen
Page 67 and 68: DODGE COVE Transportation Assessmen
Page 71 and 72: TABLE 2-29: TRANSPORTATION INFRASTR
Page 73 and 74: 3. SWOT ASSESSMENT Transportation A
Page 75 and 76: KITIMAT Strengths • Northwest Reg
Page 77 and 78: Opportunities Central Coast: • Im
Page 79 and 80: Opportunities • New Fairview dock
Page 81 and 82: 3.4 Rail Strengths • Improved CN
Page 83 and 84: 3.6 Major Ports PRINCE RUPERT Stren
Page 85 and 86: KITIMAT Strengths • Ice-free, she
Page 91: ► Issue: No coastal BC transporta
Page 101 and 102: TABLE 4-2: RESIDENCY OF PASSENGERS
Page 103 and 104: 5. RECOMMENDATIONS 5.1 General Stra
Page 111 and 112: BIBLIOGRAPHY Transportation Assessm
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Final report - Integrated Land Management Bureau

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