Federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault recently approved a mega-project to expand a container port that could affect several species at risk in British Columbia. Despite criticism from scientists and environmentalists, Ottawa ensures that the conditions imposed on the promoter of the new terminal in the estuary of the Fraser River will limit its repercussions.
The Vancouver-Fraser Port Authority intends to build a new port that will be able to handle 2.4 million containers each year, more than double the expansion project of the Port of Montreal in Contrecoeur. This terminal is designed to support the development of port traffic over the coming decades and to reduce maritime congestion in the region.
Four or five container ships are expected to dock weekly at “Terminal 2” in Robert Banks, a project that was first assessed under legislation passed under Stephen Harper’s Conservative government in 2012.
The new port, which will have a wharf over a kilometer in length and will cover an area of 177 hectares, will be built at the end of a long jetty located directly in the estuary of the Fraser River. It is an ecologically important area for several species, including 12 Lower Fraser Chinook Salmon populations at risk. “Some of the largest runs of salmon in the world use and migrate through Roberts Bank”, underlined the “review panel” responsible for evaluating the project and whose report was published in 2020.
Species at Risk
The environmental assessment also identified 32 other species at risk “that could be potentially affected by the project”, of which 6 are downright “endangered”, according to data provided by the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada ( CNSA).
This is the case of the southern resident killer whale, a population on the verge of extinction which numbers, at best, 75 individuals. The harbor will be built in the “critical habitat” of this cetacean vulnerable to noise pollution and declines in Fraser River salmon stocks. The species has also been the subject of major federal investments in an attempt to prevent its disappearance.
Environmental groups and scientists have urged the Trudeau government to reject the project, due to the potential impacts for different species of fish, birds and marine mammals. In a letter to Minister Steven Guilbeault last year, a dozen killer whale and salmon scientists said federal approval would have “significant cumulative impacts” on salmon populations and resident killer whales. already battered by several industrial “development pressures”.
In its 2020 report, the federal commission also concluded that “the project would cause numerous negative residual and cumulative effects” and that the “compensation plan” for aquatic species was “insufficient”. It also stated that “in the absence of mandatory mitigation measures to reduce underwater noise from shipping associated with the Project, degradation of critical habitat for southern killer whales will continue”.
370 conditions
Following the publication of this 627-page report — which also listed impacts for First Nations and the health of local populations — the federal government wanted to respond to the “concerns” raised by the environmental assessment. It therefore requested “additional information” from the proponent, particularly on the compensation plan, but also on the mitigation measures during construction and operation.
When announcing the authorization of the project, on April 20, Minister Steven Guilbeault thus specified that the Trudeau government imposes at the same time “370 legally binding conditions in order to protect the environment, the local fauna and the activities indigenous peoples related to land use”. Asked about the project, his cabinet reiterated the imposition of these conditions.
The proponent will thus have to avoid, mitigate and compensate for “any effect on fish and fish habitat”, while monitoring the “impact” of the port on salmon populations in the region. In addition to a program to “detect” and protect marine mammals during construction, the federal government also requires monitoring of “noise levels” and thresholds not to be exceeded, in order to “protect” the resident killer whale from South.
Other measures are planned for the construction schedule, but also to delay the subsequent departure of container ships and to “reduce underwater noise during mooring activities, when whales are present in the area. of the project “. The promoter must also provide $150 million “to ensure that the strict environmental conditions are met”, specifies the statement of the government’s decision.
Doubts
“This project will reduce vessel congestion in the Vancouver area and, combined with a significant government investment, can be completed in a way that protects critical local habitats,” said Minister Steven Guilbeault.
Biologist Kristen Walters of the Raincoast Conservation Foundation, on the contrary, raises serious doubts about the possibility of “compensating” for the destruction of habitats for endangered species, which have often depended on them for millennia. She adds that the need for port expansion “should lead us to question our consumption of goods, as a society”.
This new port expansion project is not the only one in the region. Alberta’s Trans Mountain oil export project will increase shipping traffic along BC’s coast and in killer whale habitat, among others.
In all, 34 tankers will leave a port located in Burnaby, a suburb of Vancouver, each month, compared to 5 currently, once the expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline is completed. This oil project belongs to the Canadian government.