The delegation sent in 1870 by the colony of British Columbia to negotiate the terms of confederation went first to San Francisco to catch a train.
America’s recently completed transcontinental railway allowed them to make the entire trip from Victoria to Ottawa in just 24 days. At the top of their list of conditions for aligning with the new country of Canada was a nationwide rail link within a decade.
That railway was vital for not just the economic development of the province, but as a connection for the rest of the country to the increasingly important port of Vancouver, a gateway to the west coast of the United States and the Pacific.
The city of Vancouver, like many great cities of the world, grew up around the port and it remains a central economic engine for not just the region but the entire country. According to an economic impact study done by InterVISTAS Consulting in 2008 for Port Metro Vancouver, the port is directly responsible for almost 48,000 jobs and indirectly for another 40,000.
But its importance to Canada — as the fourth largest in tonnage shipped in North America — is even greater. It has allowed for more transportation jobs and the economic spinoffs that they support. On a larger scale, however, the port is crucial to all sectors of the economy that rely on income from exports or imports. Goods worth $75 billion pass through Port Metro Vancouver each year.
Canada’s ports, just like the border crossings into the United States, are crucial to wheat farmers in Manitoba, potash miners in Saskatchewan, autoworkers in Ontario, and yes, coal miners in British Columbia and the oil industry in Alberta.
It’s those last two pieces that have brought the port into view recently. Mayor Gregor Robertson and others have decided that in addition to the risks, whatever they are, it doesn’t suit the green image he is trying to create for the City of Vancouver to become a major jumping off spot for oil tankers.
Ditto that for coal, which many Vancouver residents have no doubt been surprised to find is already being shipped out under the Lions Gate Bridge in addition to the more familiar black piles on Robert’s Bank.
The objections to coal, like those to oil, revolve around local environmental and health risks and the threat to the planet from the carbon that will be released into the atmosphere when the fossil fuels are put to use by their foreign importers.
The local environmental and health risks are a legitimate concern for residents of the Lower Mainland and the affected coastal regions. The global factors are also a legitimate concern, but they are a lot more problematic in terms of what the port means to the country.
If on the basis of a principled stand, no matter how well grounded, local residents are able to block the movement of goods through the port of Vancouver, how can a national economy function?
The focus now is on the export of coal and oil, deemed to be a threat to the global environment. But there could be any number of products passing between the North Shore mountains and the condo towers on Coal Harbour that the residents therein deem to be offensive, either incoming or outgoing.
What about the pesticides that have been banned by many municipalities. Is it morally acceptable to stop using them here and still allow them to be imported or exported for use by people who aren’t so well informed?
How about tobacco products, or old growth timber or machinery used in coal-burning power plants?
Landlocked countries have always had the economic disadvantage of having to pay a sometimes larcenous price for passage through their neighbours to international markets. Wars have been fought over control of vital seaports.
With some exceptions, landlocked provinces haven’t had the same disadvantage in the past. Transportation corridors, whether for wheat, potash or oil, have been part of the national glue that binds Canadians together.
What strains will it create in the country if Vancouver appoints itself as an ethical troll under the bridge to foreign markets with the ability to deny passage based on local sensibilities rather than national interests?
We may find that the rest of Canada starts resenting us for more than just flaunting our flower count in February.
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