Opinion: Users need more say about Vancouver’s rail bridges |
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Opinion: Users need more say about Vancouver’s rail bridges
Last week's malfunction of the Second Narrows Bridge shows how dependent the Prairie economy is on this transportation chokepoint
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When Vancouver’s Second Narrows Rail Bridge jammed last week, tanker traffic in Burrard Inlet ground to a halt. And farmers across Western Canada held their breath. For days, one aging piece of infrastructure — the bridge was opened in 1969 —threatened to choke off access to the country’s largest port. That a single mechanical failure could disrupt billions of dollars’ worth of trade should alarm anyone who believes Canada is a reliable supplier to the world.
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The malfunction left the bridge’s centre span stuck in the lowered position, blocking vessels from reaching terminals along the inlet. Rail traffic was largely spared. Marine traffic was not. And while operations eventually resumed, the warning was clear: the Port of Vancouver is one breakdown away from economic chaos.
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For grain farmers, reliability is everything. When shipments slow, contracts are lost and customers start to look elsewhere — to the U.S., Australia or the Black Sea region. Regaining that business is far harder than losing it. Canada’s competitive advantage rests, not just on crop quality, but on dependable delivery.
That is why farming groups have been sounding the alarm. Both the Grain Growers of Canada and the Wheat Growers Association have called for the bridge’s replacement in the past year. Their warnings went nowhere. Port leadership has instead focused on container expansion, even as bulk commodities — including grain — remain key to its trade volumes.
The numbers make that clear. Sixty-six per cent of the Port of Vancouver’s bulk exports originate in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Grain alone accounts for roughly $35 million in shipments moving through the port every day. Those volumes rose by eight per cent in the first half of 2025 and are expected to continue to grow.
The Prairie provinces are not peripheral players in the Port of Vancouver’s success; they are central to it. Yet their representation on the port’s 11-member board is limited to a single member. Board appointments are made in Ottawa and too often reflect political considerations rather than deep industry expertise.
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To encourage a broader, supply-chain-wide perspective, the Prairie premiers have asked the federal government to reconfigure the board to include two members from each of the four western provinces, a proposal that would better reflect input from the region that generates so much of the port’s trade. So far, there has been no meaningful reform.
In general, the performance of Canada’s seaports has been slipping. Last year, the Port of Vancouver fell to 398th of 403 ports listed in the World Bank’s Container Port Performance Index. No Canadian port cracked the top 100. For a country that depends on exports, that is more than an embarrassment — it is a competitive liability.
Meanwhile, grain shippers are being squeezed by rising costs. The “Gateway Infrastructure Fee” introduced by the Port of Vancouver in 2023 added up to 40 cents per tonne, prompting a lawsuit from major grain terminal operators. Both Manitoba and Saskatchewan intervened in the case, with Saskatchewan’s justice minister arguing that the high fees could “diminish Canada’s overall competitiveness.” That concern is not theoretical. Every added cost reverberates down the supply chain, from farm to elevator to export vessel.
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A central problem is structural. Unlike its OECD counterparts, Canadian ports operate as both landlords and developers of their own capital projects. That dual mandate creates inherent conflicts of interest. Tenants are sometimes required to fund ventures that compete directly with their operations. Nowhere is that tension clearer than with the Port of Vancouver’s $3.5-billion Roberts Bank Terminal 2 container project — an expansion that offers little direct benefit to bulk exporters yet contributes to upward pressure on their fees and rents.
The Second Narrows breakdown was not an isolated inconvenience. It was a warning about priorities and preparedness. Global demand for food is projected to rise by 50 per cent in the next 25 years as populations grow and incomes climb in developing economies. Western Canadian farmers are ready to meet that demand. In the past 11 years, they have grown nine of the largest crops on record through steady, incremental innovations.
But ambition does not move grain to market. Modern infrastructure, accountable governance and investment decisions rooted in economic reality do. Replacing the Second Narrows Bridge would be a start. Reforming port governance to recognize the economic heft of the Prairie provinces would be better. Because if Canada cannot export its crops efficiently and reliably, someone else will — and the markets we lose will not be won back easily.
Mary-Jane Bennett is a transportation consultant living in Vancouver.
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