As the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority’s Terminal 2 project is back in the news and moving at breakneck speed towards “public” hearings, this is a perfect time to remind people what a terrible project this would be for Delta, our region and the province as a whole. There could be no better use of my opportunity to communicate with our community than to spread this message.

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Whether T2 is evaluated through an economic, environmental or governance lens, it receives a failing grade.

A primary problem with the port authority’s plan to build an entirely new manmade island for T2 is a comparative cost analysis. No matter how you slice it, with a price tag estimated at up to $3 billion to create capacity for 2.4 million TEUs (20-foot equivalent units), it’s price per unit is $1,250. This price tag is appalling compared to GCT Deltaport’s proposed expansion priced at less than half that amount at $500 per unit, Vanterm’s expansion priced at $727.27 per unit, Centerm’s expansion priced at $583 per unit and DP World’s Fairview Expansion in Prince Rupert priced at $235.29 per unit.

The truly horrifying part is that T2 is the only project on that list not being financed by private sources. The funding will have to come from the port authority itself and, being an unsupervised arm of the federal government, this means the money will ultimately be the burden of every Canadian taxpayer. I hope that nothing slows down trans-Pacific trade volume like, say, a U.S.-China trade war instigated by U.S. President Donald Trump.

Another nail in the economic coffin is the fact that shipping to Port Alberni would reduce shipping time for an Asia to North America trade loop by three to four days and generate net savings for shippers of $540,000 for each vessel. Similar cost savings would apply to expansions in Prince Rupert.

The environmental arguments against T2 have been levied time and again by passionate community activists like Roger Emsley with Against Port Expansion. But if his eloquent protestations weren’t enough to convince you, maybe you’ll listen to Environment and Climate Change Canada when it says the environmental impacts would be “potentially high in magnitude, permanent, irreversible and continuous.”

If this were not enough to mark the port authority and T2 with the stain of ill repute, remember that it is also the landlord and primary competitor to Global Container Terminals’ Deltaport. GCT has filed court documents claiming the “VFPA has failed to provide the information required to justify Terminal 2 and is pursuing the project based on flawed data and a biased rationale.”

The documents even claim the port authority rejected GCT’s significantly more cost effective, privately funded expansion due to bias towards its own T2 project. That’s as clear a conflict of interest as I have ever seen.

The cherry on top is the City of Delta estimate that 1,500 acres of prime agricultural land is under threat by the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority. This is unacceptable and Delta deserves better.

Community advocate Nicholas Wong ran as an independent candidate in Delta South in the 2017 provincial election. He finished second with more than 6,400 votes. He can be reached at mrnicholaswong@gmail.com.