Thank you, Madam Chair, and good morning to members of the committee.
I represent a group of residents from Gabriola Island, which is near Nanaimo, British Columbia. My comments today reflect the concerns not only of my community but also of those other community groups throughout the south coast region of British Columbia that oppose the increasing use of our local waterways as an industrial parking lot for ships awaiting berths in the port of Vancouver.
To be clear, we fully understand the importance of shipping to the Canadian economy. We recognize that the efficient flow of commercial freighters in and out of the port of Vancouver plays a vital role in Canada's participation in the global economy.
Much of our work as community groups is focused on the many harmful environmental and safety impacts this activity brings to our waterways, but for the purposes of this committee, I will focus my comments today on economic factors.
From our viewpoint, the west coast freighter anchorage system is out of control, especially the 34 anchorage sites throughout the bays and channels of the southeast coast of British Columbia. Let me cite a few statistics from our own analysis of nearly 120,000 files over 10 years, provided by the Pacific Pilotage Authority.
First of all, by our calculation, 92% of all freighter anchorage usage is by bulk carriers coming to the port of Vancouver to load grain, coal and other bulk commodities. Over the past decade, according to the port of Vancouver's annual reports, the export of bulk commodities has increased by approximately 40%. Over that same period, anchorage usage has increased by a startling 400%. Further, we see that while container ships rarely anchor for any length of time, some 60% of anchorage usage by bulk carriers can be attributed to ships that stay for 10 or more days per port visit. Those stays and wait times can be up to 50 days or more. Also, at least 75% of all anchoring occurs prior to the first visit to a berth inside the port of Vancouver. We believe much of this is excessive and unnecessary.
Here's the problem. Anchored ships are unproductive ships. They're not moving cargo. They're simply burning fuel and incurring overhead charges, which are undoubtedly passed along to the suppliers of their eventual cargo. While we accept that bulk shipping may never achieve the smooth efficiency of the container system through the port of Vancouver, ships sitting at anchor for such long periods of time are a clear indicator of an insufficient supply chain.
Don't just take my word for it. Robert Lewis-Manning, president of the Chamber of Shipping, who appeared before this committee not long ago, wrote to Transport Canada in 2017 that the current framework for anchorage operations in the south coast of British Columbia is not optimized for efficient commercial operations, and that it results in unnecessary costs, delays, unpredictability and impacts on coastal communities.
Mr. Lewis-Manning also referenced this issue in his remarks to the committee last month in Vancouver when he acknowledged that the anchorage issue is having negative impacts on coastal communities. In fact, there are several negative impacts. They include excessive noise and light as well as threats to safety, the environment and local tourism.
I'll focus on the economic implications.
Bulk carriers anchoring in the Gulf Islands travel on average about eight hours more than they would if they went straight to the port and straight back out to sea, as most container ships do. By our calculations, they burn about 30,000 tonnes more fuel every year because of this extra travel. This is not only costly to a ship's bottom line but also degrades air quality and aggravates global warming, which, as we all know, is already having direct economic consequences. Bulk carriers pay hefty pilotage fees for each extra trip they make to and from Gulf Islands anchorages. These fees are passed on to the suppliers of cargo, such as Canadian prairie farmers.
In its 2012 report, the Quorum Corporation, which monitors the handling of grain, found that as the number of vessels waiting increased, average loading time grew. This is evidence that the congestion resulting from an increase in anchorage uses actually reduces productivity. Allowing freighters to anchor for free in the Gulf Islands for as long as they want provides unaffordable wiggle room so that otherwise necessary improvements to the port supply chain can be ignored or postponed.
Finally, about half of the extra travel, or more than 6,000 hours per year, is through southern resident killer whale foraging areas, which contributes to the dire situation, of which we're all aware, that threatens the species.
We believe that all of these factors should compel the port of Vancouver and its many partners in the shipping industry to show discipline around the use of freighter anchorages and to work to curtail this activity.
We believe that the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority, with direction from Transport Canada, is particularly well positioned, both in terms of resources and capacity, to take a lead role in finding the necessary solutions to this problem, but for now the reality seems to be that instead of limiting anchorage usage we hear about requests for even more anchorages, despite the fact that if you added a hundred more anchorages it would still not result in moving a single tonne more cargo through the port.
Thank you.
