Canada Designates Roberts Bank Terminal 2 at Port of Vancouver as a Project of National Interest

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On October 30, the Government of Canada announced in the Delta port area that it has formally designated Roberts Bank Terminal 2 (RBT2) at the Port of Vancouver as a "Project of National Interest." The project is led by the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority (VFPA), with estimated capital investment of CAD 5.9 billion, excluding financing costs. Canadian Minister of Transport Steven MacKinnon attended the announcement event.

The national interest designation directly changes the project's regulatory pathway and timeline. The designation "provides upfront certainty for the remaining applicable federal regulatory authorizations," advancing the project's commercial operation date from 2039 to 2035, a compression of approximately four years. The project still needs to reach a Final Investment Decision (FID) by mid-2027. According to The Province, early design and engineering work is scheduled to begin in 2027, with the port authority targeting completion of the FID by September 2027.

The scope of work has been itemized in existing documents. The project is located at Roberts Bank in Delta, adjacent to the existing Deltaport facility. Core works include: reclaiming land to build an artificial island of approximately 1.3 square kilometers, constructing a container terminal with three vessel berths, widening road and freight rail corridors, and expanding the tugboat basin and associated marine facilities. The terminal is designed to add 2.4 million TEU of annual container handling capacity, increasing the Port of Vancouver's existing capacity of approximately 3.5 million TEU by about 50%. VFPA states that the terminal will increase container capacity on Canada's West Coast by more than 30%.

Environmental and Indigenous consultation are two constraint tracks handled in parallel during project advancement, and the national interest designation does not eliminate these conditions. The project received federal environmental assessment approval in 2023, but the 2020 assessment had found that it would cause "significant adverse environmental effects" on Chinook salmon, wetlands, and Southern Resident killer whales. This designation explicitly "maintains the rigorous environmental protections and existing conditions set out in the federal environmental assessment." VFPA disclosed that the project has obtained the consent of 27 Indigenous communities and signed 27 reciprocal agreements. According to Fairchild Radio, nearly CAD 2 billion of the project funding is allocated to protecting fish and their habitat, marine mammals, Pacific salmon, Southern Resident killer whales, and other endangered species. Tsawwassen First Nation Chief Laura Cassidy stated at the announcement that the Nation's position is "consent, but not unconditional support." The environmental organization Environmental Defence criticized the designation as potentially allowing the project to bypass remaining approval steps under the Species at Risk Act.

Economic impact figures were itemized by Transport Canada in a news release. The project is expected to support approximately 17,000 Canadian supply chain jobs, contribute approximately CAD 3 billion to GDP annually, and generate more than CAD 630 million in annual tax revenue. On the logistics cost side, Transport Canada states that the project will avoid approximately CAD 800 million to 900 million in annual shipping and transportation costs that would otherwise be passed on to Canadians due to capacity bottlenecks, and through investments in rail networks, logistics facilities, and port modernization, save Canadians approximately CAD 1 billion annually in shipping-related costs. The project supports up to CAD 100 billion in annual trade value.

In July 2026, VFPA selected the TerraMarine consortium as the preferred proponent for the landside and terminal components, with contract scope including the marine landside, terminal structures and berth pockets, causeway widening, tugboat basin expansion, and environmental mitigation works. The full design-build agreement is expected to be executed in the first quarter of 2028, with land reclamation construction commencing in 2028.