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But her directive came just over two months before hearings are scheduled to begin on May 14, leaving some local communities to claim that they were not sufficiently consulted on the updated terms.

Global Container Terminals (GCT), a major terminal operator on the B.C. coast, is also calling on Ottawa to push back the start date for public hearings after the terms of reference were changed.

“We think that the process is a little bit flawed,” Doron Grosman, President and CEO of GCT, said in an interview.

The company is locked in its own battle with the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority, after the regulator struck down GCT’s competing container terminal project, called Deltaport, which is planned to come online around 2028. The port authority acts as both regulator and landlord to GCT on its existing Deltaport terminal, but is also putting forward its own competing terminal project in Roberts Bank — a position that Grosman calls an “inextricable conflict of interest.” The port authority rejected the GCT bid on Feb. 28.

Photo by Darryl Dyck/Bloomberg

GCT then launched a judicial review of the decision on March 28 in federal court, saying regulators should be compelled to consider both proposed projects. Grosman also warns the move could stifle investment from private sector players like GCT, which is backed by three institutional investors, in favour of taxpayer-funded projects.

“I think it’s very surprising, I think it’s unusual,” Grosman said. “I think it’s not in line with the current Canadian administration’s policy in desiring private capital to be invested, and to not be crowded out by the public sector.”