HALIFAX — Container pileups and traffic congestion at the Port of Vancouver in B.C.’s Lower Mainland could reroute cargo from China to Canada’s other coast, says the vice-chairman of the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters.

The time is now for Atlantic Canada to
secure a large share of China trade

According to the Halifax Chronicle Herald, David Fung says Atlantic Canada has an opportunity to lure container traffic away from the Pacific to Halifax or Port Hawkesbury.

Fung says that Lower Mainland ports and railway capacity can’t cope with the skyrocketing Chinese trade, the Herald reports. “It is time for the East Coast to take over,” he told a business gathering organized by the Nova Scotia division of the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters.

He suggested Atlantic Canada set up a single regional port authority if it wants to position itself as a major North American gateway to handle increasing imports and exports to and from China and other Asian countries.

Fung in personally fed up with delays at the Vancouver ports. He told his audience that his own firm, ACDEG Group of companies, had a container sitting at the port for almost a month before it was put on tracks. He was almost forced to shut down a plant in Chicago as a result. “I cannot rely on the West Coast ports any more,” he said.

But Fund insisted Atlantic Canada act quickly, as it faces competition from the Bahamas and Mexico, where money is being poured into new port infrastructure to attract ships from Asia,

Provincial governments also need to put money into improving regional transportation and bridges to allow for efficient movement of goods, he added.

— From the Chronicle-Herald