Roberts Bank Terminal 2 is a future marine container terminal on Canada’s west coast led by the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority, that will deliver critical capacity and supply chain resilience.
Roberts Bank Terminal 2 involves the construction of a trade-enabling three-berth marine container terminal on new federally owned land, built in subtidal waters to minimize environmental effects. Once operational, the terminal will increase container terminal capacity by more than 30% on Canada’s west coast, strengthen reliable access to goods Canadians use every day, and play a key role in supporting Canadian exporters who increasingly want to trade with economies around the world.
The project has been designed under our public-interest federal mandate, leveraging our deep experience building top-tier sustainable infrastructure. In addition, strong collaboration with Indigenous groups has been pivotal in designing comprehensive environmental mitigation and habitat offsetting.
The project will be funded by the port authority and private investment, not tax dollars.
Project components
There are several key components of the Roberts Bank Terminal 2 Project, which will be located at Roberts Bank in Delta, B.C.:
- Construction of new land and a wharf that will accommodate a new marine container terminal with a throughput capacity of up to 2.4 million twenty-foot equivalent (TEU) containers annually
- A widened Roberts Bank causeway to accommodate additional road and rail infrastructure to link existing road and rail networks to the marine terminal
- An expanded tug basin to accommodate additional tugs
- Environmental projects, such as habitat offsetting, construction mitigation programs, and a monitoring follow-up program
Project status
In April 2023, the Government of Canada approved Roberts Bank Terminal 2, concluding a rigorous 10-year federal environmental assessment process. While this decision represents a significant milestone for the project, there are still several key steps we need to complete before construction can begin. This includes obtaining regulatory approvals and permits (such as a Fisheries Act Authorization), ongoing consultation and collaboration with Indigenous groups, assessing market conditions, undertaking procurement, and preparing for a final investment decision. To meet Canada’s growing trade demands, we anticipate that construction of Roberts Bank Terminal 2 will begin in 2027 and will take approximately six years to complete, with the terminal operational in the early to mid-2030s.
To convey the complexity and significance of Roberts Bank Terminal 2 as we move towards procurement, we will often refer to the project as the “Roberts Bank Terminal 2 Program.” This is because it comprises many individual and interdependent infrastructure and environmental projects, each of which will be procured separately and require the support of many delivery partners.
Built for Canadians, paid for by the port authority and private investment
As a Canada Port Authority, we are required to be financially self-sufficient. Our operations are not financed by tax dollars. We receive revenues from port users through industry rents and port user fees, and we invest the profits we make back into the gateway through infrastructure improvements and other investments made to support trade activities at the port.
Roberts Bank Terminal 2 will be funded by the port authority, alongside private investment. We will recover the part we invest through rent paid by the operator of the new terminal. This is in line with other major port authority-led marine container terminal projects at the Port of Vancouver.
Quick facts
- The construction of the project will create more than 18,000 jobs over six years
- $100 billion in total trade will move through the new container terminal annually, once operational
- The container terminal will add $3 billion to GDP annually during operation
- Once operational, the project will create more than 17,300 well-paying, full-time equivalent jobs (1,500 on-terminal and 15,800 off-terminal) annually
- Terminal operations will generate $631 million in tax revenue each year
- The Roberts Bank Terminal 2 Project community investment program will provide $6 million to Delta organizations and students
- Terminal operations are expected to start in the early 2030s
- The new container terminal will add an additional 2.4 million 20-foot equivalent unit (TEU) containers worth of capacity, increasing the Port of Vancouver’s container terminal capacity by nearly 50% and increasing Canada’s west coast container capacity by approximately 30%
- The port authority has signed mutual benefits agreements with 26 Indigenous groups who have provided consent for the project based on our consultation, environmental and cultural mitigation and offsetting programs, and we will work to ensure that benefits and opportunities of the project are shared
- More than 100 technical, environmental, and engineering studies and reports have been completed, with more than 59,000 hours of fieldwork
- Commitment to build 86 hectares of habitat (equivalent in size to 567 hockey rinks) in collaboration with Indigenous groups to enhance habitats and support priority species
- The port authority has received more than 100 expressions of support for the project from 60 different organizations representing over 500,000 businesses
