BC Shipping News - September 2013

INSIDE: NORWAY’S OIL SPILL RESPONSE REGIME

BC SHIPPING NEWS

Volume 3 Issue 7

www.bcshippingnews.com

September 2013

Commercial Marine News for Canada’s West Coast.

Industry Insight Robin Silvester, President & CEO Port Metro Vancouver

Ports Review Smaller ports looking for a piece of the action

Bulk Carriers The bulk carrier evolution 12-SEP CP PM# 42161530 SEPTEMBER 2013

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Plus:

Forest exports: Old and second-growth opportunities

September 2013

Volume 3 Issue 7

On the cover: The Ican Suji heads into Vancouver Harbour.

Photo credit: BC Shipping News.

Below: The Kai Xuan docked in Port Alberni, Photo courtesy of Port Alberni Port Authority

Cover Story 22

Contents

Smaller ports looking for a piece of the action — by Ray Dykes

Robin Silvester

The definition of leadership Port Metro Vancouver’s President & CEO speaks candidly about the challenges and opportunities ahead for Canada’s largest port.

30 Ports & terminals

The 21st century marine terminal: Green and automated Captain Stephen Brown highlights the growing trends in terminal development.

Oil spill response for a definition of ‘world-leading’ 41 Searching We’ve heard a lot about ‘world-leading’ oil spill response regimes.

44

BC Shipping News digs deep to find a definition.

The Norwegian experience Norway’s oil spill response regime is the first of a four-part series looking at ‘world-leading’ response capabilities.

D E P A R T M E N T S

Photo credit: Dave Roels

F E A T U R E S

10 Industry insight

6

News briefs/industry traffic

20

History lesson

33

Forest exports

38

Bulk carriers

47

Legal affairs

50

Ferries

52

Events: Mari-Tech 20113

News briefs and letters to the editor

A history of women at sea, by Lisa Glandt

Old and second-growth opportunities,

by Darryl Anderson

The bulk carrier evolution, by Syd Heal

Application of the Hague-Visby Rules to coastal trade, by David S.Jarrett

Federal cabinet shuffle signals renewed focus on transport, by Serge Buy

CIMarE Atlantic Branch hosts successful Mari-Tech 2013

September 2013 BC Shipping News 3

September 2013 Volume 3/Issue 7 Representing eleven major cruise lines operating in the Pacific Northwest, Canada, Alaska and Hawaii.

The member lines of CLIA-North West & Canada (formerly North West & Canada Cruise Association)

are at the forefront of environment, security and safety initiatives.

CLIA-North West & Canada provides community and government relations and representation for development of local opportunities.

Members: Carnival Cruise Line l Celebrity Cruises

Crystal Cruises l Disney Cruise Line Holland America Line l Norwegian Cruise Line Oceana Cruises l Princess Cruises l Regent Seven Seas Royal Caribbean International l SilverSea Cruises

www.clia-nwc.com Ready to take your call!

Tel: 604-681-8628 Tel (24hr): 604-685-0756 E: tymaclaunch@tymac.ca

Prompt, reliable and professional service...

24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Publisher McIvor Communications Inc. President & Editor Jane McIvor Contributing Writers Darryl Anderson Captain Stephen Brown Ray Dykes Syd Heal Robin Silvester

Sandra Attersley Serge Buy Lisa Glandt David S.Jarrett Wendy Zatylny

Advertising and Subscriptions Jane McIvor Phone: 604-893-8800 / Email: jane@bcshippingnews.com ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION Canada Three Years $99.95 Cdn*

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Pilot boarding and disembarkation / Water taxi service Marine towage services / Cruise vessel waste removal Barge services including supply of fresh water Sludge oil and bilge water removal / CBSA bonded carrier Blackwater/greywater removal / Transportation of ship’s stores Certified for handling of dangerous goods Barge loading ramp SWL 66 tonnes

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4 BC Shipping News September 2013

Contents copyrighted 2013 McIvor Communications Inc. 300 - 1275 West 6th Avenue, Vancouver, British Columbia Canada V6H 1A6 Phone: 604-893-8800/Fax: 604-708-1920 E-mail: contact@bcshippingnews.com International Standard Serial Number ISSN: 1925-4865 Published 10 times per year.

The opinions expressed by contributing writers are not necessarily those of the Publisher. No part of this magazine may be reproduced in any form without written permission of the publisher.

Photos by Michelle Valberg

GUEST EDITORial

ACPA conference to highlight partnerships

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n behalf of the Board of Directors and the members of ACPA, and myself, I would like to warmly welcome all participants to ACPA’s 55th Annual General Meeting and Conference in beautiful Nanaimo.

A year ago, I started as Executive Director (and now President) at the Association of Canadian Port Authorities (ACPA), with my very first exposure to the ports community being last year’s conference in Hamilton. What a year it has been since then.

The past year saw activity on a number of fronts, beginning with the elaboration of ACPA’s White Paper on Marine Policy. We also worked hard to expand ACPA’s visibility and outreach within Ottawa and the shipping community, Member of:

and it has been both gratifying and encouraging to see the resulting level of engagement and support. I look forward to seeing more in the coming year, and ACPA will do its part to be a valued and productive partner in the current policy dialogue.

On the horizon And this is just the beginning. The year ahead will see us building on the momentum that we have created so far. Ensuring Canada’s ports and shippers have the regulatory and financial capabilities to take their place as pillars of the government’s economic and trade agenda will be a prime focus. Yet perhaps the most critical issue is the need to work towards an understanding and appreciation among the general population of the role that ports and transportation play in our standard of living and way of life. This is an area that will require collaboration among a

broad range of players.

This conference, with its first-time trade show and theme of “Building Partnerships”, very much reflects the new direction that ACPA is pursuing — one characterized by dynamism, energy and service to its members and the greater community. I would like to close with a warm and heartfelt thank you to Bernie Dumas and the entire team at the Nanaimo Port Authority for all of their hard work in hosting what is shaping up to be a fabulous conference. Bernie and his team have brought creativity, enthusiasm and a healthy dose of humour to the task; at the end of the day, they have captured and reflected the essence of “partnerships” beautifully.

Wendy Zatylny President, Association of Canadian Port Authorities

Local traffic...

Thanks to Ken Pfister for this shot of the Bahamian-registered vehicle carrier Glovis Prestige plus pilot vessel teken off Holland Point, Victoria (with the Olympic Mountains in the background) this past July on its way to Tacoma from New Westminster. The Glovis Prestige was built in 2011, has a length of 168 metres, a breadth of 28 metres and a draft of 87 metres. It has an average speed of 15.5 knots.

International Sailor’s Society Canada

Got a great photo? Send it to jane@bcshippingnews.com to be included in our feature on ships visiting our local waters.

September 2013 BC Shipping News 5

LETTERs TO THE EDITOR Dear Jane Thank you, once again, for sending me BC Shipping which I thoroughly enjoy down here. However, I have become increasingly concerned about the rapidly increasing power of the environmental movement in your neck of the woods (and elsewhere in Canada) which appears to be becoming less and less objective by the day. As I have been in the forefront of environmental protection for much of my career this saddens me as all balance appears to have gone by the wayside. The movement seems to be against everything: fishing, shipping, ports, oil and gas, coal, pipelines, lumbering, etc. It seems also, that your Government has succumbed to some of this pressure. It is hard to believe that a very important pipeline project could be abandoned. Pipelines are a very safe way to transport oil— much safer than by road or rail. The terrible tragedy in Quebec, where pipelines were opposed, underscores this aspect.

I am glad that your publication occasionally speaks out against this imbalance. Keep up the good work. The maritime industry needs to speak up more.

Warmest good wishes Prof. Edgar Gold, CM, AM, QC, PhD, FNI To the Editor I am writing to correct a couple of factual errors in the June 2013 edition of your magazine, specifically in the article: Administrative Monetary Penalties under the Canada Shipping Act, 2001, by Malik Akhtar.

Contrary to the process described in the last paragraph of Mr. Akhtar’s article, please note that a Review Hearing is

FULL SERVICE REPAIR YARD 330 Ton Marine Travelift Welding  Electrical Repairs  Mechanical Repairs  Vessel Refits Painting and Sandblasting  Custom Steel and Aluminum Projects CSI Inspection Readiness  24 Hour Emergency Service

the first level of recourse available from the Transportation Appeal Tribunal of Canada (TATC) for an alleged offender who wishes to challenge a Notice of Violation. Should the alleged offender wish to challenge the Review Determination rendered by the Tribunal following the Review Hearing, the case would proceed to the second level at the TATC, known as an Appeal Hearing. Simply put, there are no first and second level reviews; rather the two-level process consists of a review and an appeal.

Also please note, Review Determinations and Appeal Decisions are found on the TATC website (www.tatc.gc.ca) under the “Decisions” page (www.tatc.gc.ca/decision/index. php?&lang=eng) and not under the Guide for Applicants — Canadian Transportation Agency, as stated in the article.

Thank you, (Carl Guignion on behalf of) J. Richard W. Hall Chairperson and CEO Transportation Appeal Tribunal of Canada Something to say? Send a letter to jane@bcshippingnews.com. BCSN

Correction...

Re: July/August 2013 issue — Ray Dykes’ shipyard review

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wo vessels were incorrectly identified in Ray’s article.

The SMIT Dawn and the SMIT Spirit were referenced in an update on activity at Arrow Marine. The two vessels are not sister tugs as was noted by Ray. The SMIT Dawn is an 1,800 BHP conventional twin screw tug, that is stationed in Prince Rupert and the SMIT Spirit is a 3,000 BHP ASD Tractor tug.

Our apologies to SMIT for the error!

Photo credit: Mike Zelt, courtesy SMIT

11580 Mitchell Road, Richmond  604-323-7402 www.ArrowMarineServices.com

6 BC Shipping News September 2013

The SMIT Spirit (shown above with its previous name of the Tiger Spirit).

news briefs Seaspan announces multi-year, $1 million-plus donation in B.C. marine and port community Photo courtesy Seaspan ULC

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he Sail and Life Training Society (SALTS), the Vancouver Maritime Museum (VMM) and the Royal Canadian Marine Search & Rescue (RCM-SAR) are the newest beneficiaries of Washington Foundation’s charitable giving in B.C. On behalf of the Dennis and Phyllis Washington Foundation, Seaspan announced a multi-year donation of $1.1 million to the three B.C. marine and port community charitable organizations.

Partnering with SALTS, VMM and RCM-SAR, the Washington Foundation’s five-year commitment extends through 2017.

“We are thrilled to be honouring three community partners that not only reflect the Washington Foundation’s focus, but are also tied to the waters and rich history of B.C.’s marine industry,” said Jonathan Whitworth, Seaspan CEO, speaking on behalf of the Washington Foundation.

The Dennis and Phyllis Washington Foundation’s charitable donations are the organization’s first direct donation of their kind in Canada. Since its inception in 1988, the Washington Foundation has donated more than $144 million in the U.S. to hundreds of organizations that focus on education, health and human services, arts and culture and community service.

Jonathan Whitworth (Seaspan), Simon Robinson (VMM), Loren Hagerty (SALTS), and Jim Lee (RCM-SAR).

Mike Halligan, Executive Director of the Washington Foundation, says today’s announcement is the start of an exciting inaugural collaboration with Canadian charitable organizations in British Columbia.

SALTS will receive $100,000 per year from 2013 to 2017, while VMM and RCM-SAR will both receive $100,000 per year until the end of 2015.

Better solutions based on experience We have been providing the marine industry with technically-sound and cost-effective consultancy solutions for over 60 years. Every piece of advice we give is underpinned by a wealth of technical and operational experience, helping you find the best solution, whatever your project. www.lr.org/marine

Lloyd’s Register is a trading name of Lloyd’s Register Group Limited and its subsidiaries. For further details please see www.lr.org/entities

September 2013 BC Shipping News 7

industry traffic Congratulations to BCIT’s 2013 Nautical Sciences and Marine Engineering Classes

Photo courtesy Wendy D Photography, BCIT

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Photo courtesy Wendy D Photography, BCIT

BCIT’s Marine Engineering Class of 2013: (alphabetical order) Jamin Adhikari, Jessica Chapman, Sebastian Fritz, Edward Gauthier, Christopher Geppert, Tarpan Roy, Jeffrey Sopuck (missing from photo) and Colin Thompson (missing from photo). Included in photo above: Taj Mitha, Richard Wiefelspuett and Paul Dangerfield.

BCIT’s Nautical Sciences Class of 2013: (alphabetical order) Amy Barnes, Garrett Beier, David Denton-Cardew, Daniel Miller, Jacklyn Renton, Bryan Stapleton and Tavis Storey.

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www.thundermarine.com 8 BC Shipping News September 2013

ongratulations are in order to this year’s graduating classes of BCIT’s Nautical Sciences and Marine Engineering classes.

During the convocation ceremony in July, presided over by Jeff Otto, Co-operative Education Co-ordinator, BCIT Marine Campus, and Captain Jamie Marshall, Vice President, Fleet Operations, BC Ferries, graduates were congratulated and received advice for the future from Taj Mitha (BCIT Board of Governors), Paul Dangerfield (Vice President of Education, Research and International, BCIT), Dr. Richard Wiefelspuett (Associate Dean, BCIT Marine Campus), Captain Agnelo Pereira (Nautical Sciences Chief Instructor) and Sanjeev Sarwai (Marine Engineering Chief Instructor).

Valedictorians Garrett Beier (for Nautical Sciences) and Tarpan Roy (for Marine Engineering) spoke on behalf of their classmates to relate humourous stories of their time in training and to thank instructors for their patience and perseverance.

In addition to recieving their certifactes, Achievement Awards were presented to: • David Denton-Cardew and Jamin Adhikari for the Oak Maritime Award.

• Tavis Storey and Sebastian Fritz for the Algoma Central Corporation Award.

• Jacklyn Renton and Jeffrey Sopuck for the Chamber of Shipping of British Columbia Award.

• Bryan Stapleton for the Vancouver Maritime Arbitrators’ Association Award.

• Daniel Miller and Christopher Geppert for the BC Ferry and Marine Workers Union Award.

• Amy Barnes and Tarpan Roy for the BC Ferry Services Award • David Denton-Cardew for the Vancouver Conway Club Book Award.

• Garrett Beier and Colin Thompson fir the Nautical Professional Education Society of Canada Book Awards.

Well done and congratulations!

news briefs ClassNK releases progressive speed trial analysis software PrimeShip-GREEN/PSTA

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lassNK (Chairman and President: Noboru Ueda) has announced the development of the software, PrimeShip-GREEN/PSTA (Progressive Speed Trial Analysis) to help shipyards comply with the Amendment to MARPOL Annex VI which makes the calculation of a vessel’s EEDI (Energy Efficiency Design Index) mandatory.

The software analyzes the results from speed trials and calculates a ship’s speed in calm sea conditions.

The Amendment to MARPOL Annex VI came into force in January 2013, requiring mandatory EEDI calculation and EEDI regulation values for vessels contracted from January 1, 2013 onwards.

When calculating the EEDI, external factors such as the wind, waves, tides, shallow waters, and displacement during speed trials can be corrected to allow

for higher accuracy when determining a ship’s speed in calm sea conditions.

ClassNK developed this software to provide a straightforward method for compensating for external factors in progressive speed trial analysis based on ISO Standard 15016:2002, recognized in the IMO EEDI Guidelines “2012 Guidelines on Survey and Certification of the Energy Efficiency Design Index (EEDI)”.

ClassNK is committed to supporting the maritime industry in complying with new international conventions and is constantly developing various support tools among others as part of this commitment.

PrimeShip-GREEN/PSTA is provided to shipyards free of charge. To apply, please complete the application form available at www.classnk.or.jp (and follow the links to Primeship).

Women’s shipping conference

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eading women executives and other experts from the international maritime shipping community will be meeting in Montreal this October to discuss economic, environmental and political challenges facing the industry as part of the 33rd annual Women’s International Shipping and Trading Association (WISTA) conference.

Dubbed Navigating the Seas of Change, the conference will include business sessions, workshops and networking events. It will be hosted at the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth Hotel in downtown Montreal, October 2-4.

For more information, please visit: wistacan.net

September 2013 BC Shipping News 9

INDUSTRY INSIGHT

The definition of leadership Robin Silvester, President & CEO Port Metro Vancouver

W

ith a background in mergers and acquisitions and a career with a common theme in capital intensive industries, it’s no wonder that Robin Silvester has been so successful in the role of President & CEO of Port Metro Vancouver. To his credit, joining the Port following the amalgamation of the three Lower Mainland port authorities while in the throes of a worldwide recession, Silvester has led Port Metro Vancouver through some pretty significant and challenging changes. Managing internal organizational change and leading the Port through a $9 billion multi-partner infrastructure improvement and expansion program, all the while increasing focus on community and stakeholder engagement as well as ensuring environmental best practices would be a challenge for any new CEO. Silvester, however, has clearly demonstrated the leadership skills necessary to carry out this monumental task.

BCSN: Let’s start by comparing Port Metro Vancouver to other ports. What are some of the unique characteristics about this Port?

RS: The starting point would be the scale and the diversity of activity in Vancouver. On a continental basis, we’re the fourth largest in total tonnage and the most diverse in that we have all of bulk, breakbulk, container, auto and cruise.

We’re the largest export tonnage port in the whole of North America and $1 in every $5 of Canada’s trade in goods takes place through Vancouver — that’s including trade with the U.S. It’s such a big part of the national economy.

If you compare Canadian ports to our U.S. counterparts, the governance structure is different. Canadian ports are federal and U.S. ports are governed by either state or municipality. That’s a great strength for the Canadian system.

It’s borne out of a recognition by Canada that we’re a trading nation and ports are critical trading assets. It’s in the national interest as well as a local interest and when you’re looking at ports you have to consider issues from both perspectives. That gives us some strong advantages by comparison with the U.S. We’re able to plan better for the long-term trade needs of the country and it gives us a basis for a more balanced relationship with municipalities which is important. It can be challenging but it’s important to be able to plan for the long term in a structured way. It does come with pros and cons — in Seattle, for example, two cents of every property tax dollar goes to the port whereas we actually pay $6 million a year to Lower Mainland municipalities. The governance model for ports in Canada is more holistic in terms of being able to plan to meet the national need.

10 BC Shipping News September 2013

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Photo credit: Dave Roels, www.daveroels.com

...Silvester has led Port Metro Vancouver through some pretty significant and challenging changes.

Another strength in Canada from an international perspective — particularly on the West Coast — has been the way the federal and provincial governments and ports have come together to think about and invest in the Gateway. It’s quite a unique program — for example, compared to the Panama Canal expansion that is expected to cost just over $6 billion (U.S. funds), there is $9 billion worth of port and logistics related investment here in the Lower Mainland alone.

It’s been fascinating talking to customers overseas over the last few years — four years ago, we had plans for infrastructure and artists’ renditions and each year as we’ve gone back, the artists’ renditions are turning into photographs and you can see our level of credibility increase in their reactions. It’s being built and taking shape and that’s a real strength.

BCSN: Can you identify trends in the shipping sector that are impacting on port development?

RS: We see some common challenges which are driven out of the continual expectation for improvement. One of the most notable trends over the last 10 years has been the increasing size of ships. That has created a number of challenges but also a lot of opportunities for ports around the world.

INDUSTRY INSIGHT Photo courtesy Seaspan ULC

The first consideration is whether or not the port can handle such sizes.

We’re fortunate to be a deep-water port so for the container side, we can already handle the largest ships that are calling the West Coast of North America but terminals like Fraser Surrey Docks can no longer handle the so-called ‘workhorses’ of the Pacific so they have to consider projects like coal to maintain operations.

You see changes happening as a result of this trend of increasing ship size. River ports are increasingly becoming constrained and we’re seeing more dredging projects in places like New York, Savannah, Antwerp and Rotterdam just so they can create capacity to handle these vessels.

We also see more focus on productivity because a larger vessel potentially will spend longer alongside the terminal and ship owners don’t want that.

The ship is only making money when it’s steaming, not when it’s tied up. It’s driving a consolidation around major hubs and we’re fortunate to be one of those major hubs. It’s driving a focus on the need to continually improve operational efficiency and the need for shipping lines, terminals, ports and railways and trucks to work together.

That resonates with what has been our fundamental way of doing business now for the last five or more years.

We’ve already delivered significant improvements through close collaboration — for example, the intermodal work we’ve done to remove two days off delivery time. That was done by industry partners working together.

Automation of terminals is another trend that we’re watching quite carefully. It’s not a short term thing but over the coming decade — it’s likely Terminal 2 will be more automated than other terminals in B.C. Automation is becoming more the norm as new terminals are built. It’s a technology that has moved from bleeding edge to leading edge and will gradually become the norm as we see time pass. It’s important to realize though that despite automation, the growth opportunities will mean more jobs. Skills requirements will change and evolve, as they always have, but we definitely expect the workforce to grow.

Robin with wife (and sponsor of the commissioning of the Seaspan Raven) Clare Waters and Jonathan Whitworth, President and CEO, Seaspan ULC (February 2011).

And then, of course, there are the growing trends of focus on environmental and social issues.

BCSN: I’d like to spend some time discussing the Gateway. You mentioned $9 billion being invested in infrastructure improvements. What will this investment mean for B.C. and Canada?

RS: It’s creating capacity first and foremost. The original strategy from a government point of view was if a government invests in public infrastructure — bridges and roads, for example — it will encourage the private sector to invest in infrastructure like terminals and we’ve seen exactly that.

Over the last four years, you could pick almost every business in every sector and see major investments: Neptune, Westshore, Vanterm, Centerm, Deltaport, Richardson, Pacific Coast Terminals, Kinder Morgan Wharves.

None of that would have been possible without the corridor capacity investments that create the ability to bring cargo to the ports. It’s playing out exactly as planned and is a credit to the people who put the strategy together 10 years ago. They had the foresight to create the collaboration to make that investment happen and that has allowed and stimulated so much additional investment. Within the next 18 months, when we complete the investment program, we’ll have increased the capacity of the Port corridors by 50 to 100 per cent. It underpins the growth that’s going to serve the country and

the economy for generations to come.

BCSN: Was this a strategy done in conjunction with the amalgamation of the three Lower Mainland ports?

RS: In a way, they were parallel processes. The amalgamation was a very important initiative to have taken place. It was one of those things where the strategic rationale was overwhelming. It’s given us an ability to plan holistically across the Lower Mainland and to leverage the financial strengths that we have as a combined entity to act in a way that the previous separate entities couldn’t have done. For example, we bought the Fraser Wharves Terminal this year, and three years ago we bought the Canfor and Interfor mill sites that were being shut down. By buying them, we’ve been able to ensure they stay in industrial use and we’re already developing those sites which will, again, facilitate growth in the Gateway. Had we not done that, those sites might have been sold and rezoned into other commercial or residential use and lost from the industrial land base. That would have been terrible.

Before the amalgamation, the Fraser River Port Authority (where those opportunities presented themselves) didn’t have the balance sheet strength and wouldn’t have been able to make those acquisitions. It would have been almost inconceivable for the Vancouver Port Authority to buy assets in the Fraser Port Authority’s jurisdiction.

Having amalgamated, we don’t have September 2013 BC Shipping News 11

INDUSTRY INSIGHT

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If we continue to lose industrial land, we will literally and significantly negatively impact the economy of B.C. and Canada. The country needs this port to continue to grow...

any of those problems. And the interesting thing again, when you compare that to south of the border, you can look down the West Coast of the U.S. and see that Seattle and Tacoma would probably be stronger if they amalgamated as would Los Angeles and Long Beach. Will that happen? Likely not, I would say, because they are municipal ports separately governed by municipalities who each want to do things their way and have their piece of the pie.

Municipal politics are going to stand in the way of the logical argument.

BCSN: The notion of a “super-port” in B.C. has been raised in the past, most recently by former Premier Gordon Campbell. How likely a scenario is that?

RS: In many ways, we’re delivering on that notion in a different way. There are

two things: if you look at the original 1960s super-port concept for Delta, it’s not evolving in exactly the way it was foreseen and as a result, we’ll always have activity in Burrard Inlet. That’s not necessarily a bad thing for the character of Vancouver. If you consider the volumes and growth we’re handling, we are managing to accommodate that growth and we can see continuing to be able to do that but for the one concern of available industrial land.

The second perspective is if you look across the B.C. coast over the last four years or so, between Prince Rupert and ourselves, the relationship has changed in a positive way. We still compete with each other, particularly on a day-to-day basis for container business for example, but the ability

Port to purchase faster.

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12 BC Shipping News September 2013

to create capacity on the coast in line with Canada’s needs is constrained and we need both Vancouver and Prince Rupert to exist and expand. There is more than enough room for both of us and B.C. and Canada need both ports to be successful.

You could argue pros and cons of an amalgamated super-port but it doesn’t have to happen in the short term. We see the ability for both of us to continue as is but equally, we can see where there’s a strategic logic for amalgamation. We don’t have a strong view either way.

BCSN: Could you elaborate on your concerns over available industrial land?

RS: Yes, there are two aspects to this. The trend over the last two decades has been a steady loss of industrial land and as a result, we see pressure on other types of land — for example, agricultural land. It’s a consequence of this unrelenting, steady erosion of the industrial land base. We need to have a better discussion about this. I don’t think the discussion should be about removing the agriculture land but rather replicating the Agricultural Land Reserve through the creation of an Industrial Land Reserve.

If we continue to lose industrial land, we will literally, and significantly negatively, impact the economy of B.C. and Canada. The country needs this port to continue to grow and be successful. We absolutely should continue to increase the density of our lands and projects like Neptune, Centerm, Pacific Coast Terminals, etc., are great examples of that. In two years’ time, Neptune will be able to handle twice the volume it could handle last year and that’s fantastic, it’s exactly what they and we should be doing — making best use of the scarce asset of the waterfront. But we also have to preserve industrial land to support the supply chain through the Lower Mainland and there has to be a conversation about taking that land and protecting it much in the same way the agricultural land is protected through the ALR. BCSN: Is there an opportunity to reclaim some of the land already lost?

RS: There needs to be a conversation about how we provide for the future.

The industrial land that’s there is a

INDUSTRY INSIGHT great first step but I think there is a bigger issue. We need to think about where else we might create industrial land and that’s a complicated conversation.

For example, Terminal 2 at Roberts Bank, we’re creating that land as brand new land in the marine environment.

For a terminal, it’s logical but it’s a very expensive way of creating land and there aren’t many locations where you can do that.

We also have the Tsawwassen industrial lands project, which is the only example I know of in the last two generations where new industrial land is being brought to market. We think we’ll probably be the first partner with the Tsawwassen First Nations in bringing that land into industrial use. It’s great to see a framework where we can work with First Nations and industry more broadly to bring industrial land into use adjacent to the Port. It reduces truck traffic in the community and will see 300 acres of land coming into use over the next few years. The only other example that comes to mind is our conversion of a municipal dump in Richmond into industrial land many years ago. All other examples are of lost industrial land.

BCSN: What do you consider to be some of the obstacles in establishing an Industrial Land Reserve?

RS: We have to do a better job of raising community consciousness. There are 60,000 jobs in the Lower Mainland related to the Port and those are wellpaid jobs — 40 to 50 per cent above the national average wage. We have the opportunity to continue to grow those jobs and the country needs us to continue to grow the activity that is supporting those jobs. The one thing that could stop it is the availability of industrial land. We had the recent example of Target establishing a primary distribution facility in Calgary as they move into Canada because they couldn’t find a sufficient parcel of land in the Lower Mainland. That’s a loss of several hundred well-paid jobs to the Lower Mainland’s economy and it’s inefficient for Target.

Part of generating social licence is getting a better understanding of these economic arguments but it’s more than that. For example, we recently produced September 2013 BC Shipping News 13

Photo courtesy Pacific Coast Terminals

INDUSTRY INSIGHT

Pacific Coast Terminals’ President and CEO Lorne Friberg signs a 30-year lease with Robin while PCT General Manager Ken Catton and Port Moody Mayor Mike Clay look on (January 2012).

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...we need to create the processes and structures that allow a dialogue to take place in a constructive way.

14 BC Shipping News September 2013

Photo credit: BC Shipping News

a new video (available at www.bcshippingnews.com/video) that illustrates the emotional attachment to the port. At the end of the day, economics is important but it’s not that interesting to most people. Collectively, as an industry, we have to build that recognition of the importance of the port. So many things we rely on come into Canada via the Port and so many things that people rely on throughout the country to support their own family and their own economy relies on the Port to get to market. So it’s about trying to build a better understanding of the emotional attachment. It’s about your neighbour and your neighbour’s family and the way the Port is an integral part of their lives.

The other key part to this is about getting better at engaging the public in what we do. It’s one of the areas where we’ve increased our approach substantially in the last few years. It’s completely reasonable for people to want to have a say in how these developments take place. We need to recognize the importance of that. We need to recognize that municipal governments want to be involved and we need to create the processes and structures that allow a dialogue to take place in a constructive way. It doesn’t mean we’ll always agree about everything but we should always at least have the discussion. By having the discussion, you often find there are better solutions that can better meet everyone’s needs.

BCSN: Doesn’t this slow the development process down?

RS: In some ways, not doing it slows the process down. If you look back at the processes where we’ve put a lot of focus on engagement, we’ve been more successful faster. From one perspective, you could say that if we didn’t engage the public we could do it faster but the reality is that it would be slower because all the concerns would still be there but we’d be addressing them in a reactive rather than proactive way.

It’s part and parcel of what we need to do. Where we do

it well, we get some great outcomes. For example, the 80th Street Rail Overpass project within the Roberts Bank Rail Corridor — there is strong support within the municipality of Delta because it’s unlocking development of the lands near Boundary Bay Airport and part of their community plan calls for the development of commercial use in that area. The overpass will allow for good traffic access to the area as well as improved access by rail to the Port so it’s a great win-win.

Similarly, the replacement of the George Massey Tunnel is another project where we both see creating that infrastructure as critical for different, but convergent reasons.

We want to see port traffic move more easily on Highway 99 and better vessel access to the Fraser River, and the Mayor wants to see better access on Highway 99 for members of her community. We both have a strong desire to see that project progress and we’re working together in advocating to the Province that they need to be planning to replace that asset.

The more discussions we have, the more we find those common areas of interest. At the moment, there’s a great opportunity with the federal government having allocated significant funds for development under their communities program. If we, alongside Lower Mainland municipalities, are going forward to government, we both have a much stronger voice and stand a greater chance of getting those investment dollars.

BCSN: While we’re on the subject of engagement with municipalities, could you comment on the City of Vancouver’s recent proclamation against coal and their negative stance on tanker traffic?

RS: I think we need to step back a bit and consider how the Port and the city have grown up together. We have good working relationships with Vancouver City staff — for example, the Powell Street overpass which is of benefit to both of us. There are some areas where we can work together

Minister Joe Oliver, Minister Denis Lebel, Captain Gordon Houston and MP Andrew Saxton with Robin during the announcement of initiatives to create a world-class tanker safety regime (March 2013).

INDUSTRY INSIGHT we take into consideration and the reason we haven’t issued a permit for Fraser Surrey Docks yet is because we’re investigating these carefully. We always welcome engagement on the issues but we have to separate what issues we can deal with and those we can’t. On the issues that we can address, we welcome the debate and

the comments are considered very carefully.

BCSN: In other words, the proclamation has more to do with national public policy than the port.

RS: Exactly. It’s something Council felt they wanted to take a position on.

It’s not really within their jurisdiction and we’re not aware of any plans

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quite well and I think the population at large understands the importance that commodities and resources play in the economy of the Lower Mainland. It’s such a critical part of the economy and it has been here and been well managed for a long, long time. That’s not to say we shouldn’t always look at it critically and always look at how we can improve and whenever we have a project we should make absolutely sure we’re building best practices into that project. We’ve been handling coal through this port for decades. We handled 32 million tonnes last year with barely even a handful of complaints.

BCSN: Did you have the opportunity to discuss these issues with Mayor Robertson?

RS: We’ve had more discussions with staff than directly with Council to be honest. I presented to Council in January and we talked about a number of these issues and we do have different perspectives on some of them. We also, of course, have different jurisdictions but I think the dialogue can be healthy.

Fundamentally, a lot of the concerns that we hear being expressed are about issues outside the scope of the Port’s jurisdiction. Whether or not coal should be traded, or whether or not U.S. thermal coal should be handled in Canada were decided with the North American Free Trade Agreement and the World Trade Organization.

The analogy I’ve used in the past is that the City doesn’t not issue a building permit to extend someone’s house because they want to have a debate about sustainable forestry. If there’s a debate to be had about sustainable forestry, then that needs to happen but if you want to extend that house with timber from a local timber yard that meets building code, then the consideration of whether or not to extend the house isn’t to do with forestry, it’s to do with local planning issues. I see the coal debate being a bit like that. The debate about climate change or about the use of thermal coal to generate power is an important debate but it’s not one you have when you’re considering whether or not you permit a four-million-tonne coal handling terminal. The concerns about dust, rail and barges are issues

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September 2013 BC Shipping News 15

INDUSTRY INSIGHT

Photo credit: BC Shipping News

relating to Port lands in Vancouver for new coal terminal developments so it’s not a current issue for us. If there was a proponent who brought a project forward, as we always do, we’d consult the City but ultimately we would consider it within the framework of the Canada Marine Act, the regulations of Transport Canada and all of the different relevant jurisdictions. It would be an objective decision, not a political decision.

BCSN: Looking at long-term development of the Corridor, are there additional projects required for continued growth?

RS: There are two critical major construction plans — one is the George Massey Tunnel and another is a rail crossing on the Fraser River, whether it’s the New West rail bridge or another rail crossing at a different location. As we look at it in the long term, there needs to be capacity to get trains across the river.

There are a number of other projects that we’ll see come forward as we grow — overpasses, local improvements as well as continuing community-focused improvements — benefits to the community that are convergent with the needs of the Port. There are a number of issues where we can bring the community, port and industry together and come up with solutions that meet everyone’s needs.

BCSN: This raises the issue of environmental sustainability. I think it’s safe to say that this is a major focus for the Port given the number of initiatives underway (Northwest Ports Clean Air Strategy, shore power, habitat banking, the Blue Circle Awards, etc.). How has the integration of environmental sustainability into port operations affected performance?

RS: It’s something I’ve said several times — when I looked at this organization from the outside, it’s one of those personal things I wanted to ensure was here and I think the organization does have those values in its DNA. For example, the international ballast water exchange regulations are based on a process that was pioneered in Vancouver 20 years ago. We were the first port in Canada and the second in North America to have full-time environmental staff. Today, we have a team of 15. It’s just part of the way this organization does things.

Robin with former Chair of the IMO’s Marine Environment Protection Committee Andreas Chyrsostomous (May 2013).

16 BC Shipping News September 2013

BCSN: I understand that you organized and sent three staff on a B.C. stakeholder trip to Norway to study that country’s oil spill preparedness and response regime. Could you describe some of the lessons learned from that trip?

RS: One of the most interesting findings was the extent of involvement of municipalities in spill response preparedness. There is much more collaboration between industry, all levels of government and the general population. One of the key takeaways from that trip, in terms of spill prevention, is that we’re possibly already better than Norway with the standards we have in place. There are definitely some things that Norway has done differently that we can learn from — one of the things is that within an hour of an incident, they can organize a hundred boats because everyone in the community is engaged in spill response. They have some cultural differences that aren’t transferrable to B.C. I would like to think we could move toward a better understanding of the importance of industry to everyone in the country. That has been helped by the way they’ve approached spill response structurally with state involvement and industry and strong municipal engagement. They are also helped by the fact that they have a smaller population with fewer big parts of the economy as visible.

BCSN: Do you see Port Metro Vancouver playing a larger role in spill response?

RS: Absolutely. We’re already doing a range of activities, like the visit to Norway which was to try and bring partners and stakeholders and interested parties together to better understand the issues. With a better understanding of the issues, you get a better understanding of the whole picture.

We have also started to undertake community engagement in a much more robust way. I think it’s something we and the industry need to do more of and we’re working with industry to encourage that.

BCSN: I’d like to spend some time looking at the issues that affect Canadian ports as a whole. I understand you are the Chair of the Association of Canadian Port Authorities (ACPA). Could you describe the type of issues that are addressed through the Association?

RS: There are two big focus areas: one is infrastructure investment and the other is the cost structure in government and the trend to downloading costs onto users. Ports all across the country are infrastructure intensive and share the same interest in ensuring we’re able to continue to develop the large capital assets that are needed to sustain growth. A big role of ACPA is making sure the government has port infrastructure in mind as it thinks about its investment programs.

Regarding government cost structures, we understand the importance of fiscal control in government and we understand that, at the end of the day, you want transparency in the way costs are incurred and charged but there’s the risk of a headlong rush to download fees without necessarily a full understanding of the possible consequences.

BCSN: Looking at government regulations as a whole, could you provide insight into the Port’s relationships with the various departments and levels of government?

RS: We have a healthy engagement with federal, provincial and municipal governments across a whole range of issues

and to which we pay close attention — for example, there has been a lot of change in the environmental processes for large projects and also in habitat protection regulations and those are important to us.

There has been a lot of good collaboration around investment for infrastructure. We benefit in Canada from a federal and provincial government that understand the importance of trade and the importance of port infrastructure and connecting infrastructure. A big part of our engagement is that we have a good common understanding of where the next pieces of the jigsaw puzzle need to go into place. It’s been very productive.

BCSN: You must be pleased by the appointment of Lisa Raitt to Minister of Transport Canada.

RS: Absolutely. I think having someone in that position who has previously run a port (in Toronto) and has been very involved in labour issues relating to the supply chain in a very constructive way (through her role as Minister of Labour) is very positive for Canada.

BCSN: Minister Raitt was involved in the last labour negotiations between the International Longshore Workers

*

INDUSTRY INSIGHT We benefit in Canada from a federal and provincial government that understand the importance of trade and the importance of port infrastructure and connecting infrastructure.

Union and the BC Maritime Employers Association which resulted in an eightyear agreement. Could you comment on that process? Further, what role does the Port play in labour negotiations?

RS: We’re not at the bargaining table with the exception of our own staff who belong to Local 517 of the ILWU. We have a very constructive union relationship with our staff in Port Metro Vancouver. We’re very proud to have one of only two bargaining arrangements in the country that has individual performance incentives within the labour agreement and that’s a testament to the strength of the relationship.

Outside of that, we’re not part of the wider port bargaining but we do take an interest. We’re also very complimentary to both ILWU and BCMEA for having reached a long-term labour agreement.

BCSN: Do you think the trend will continue toward longer term agreements?

RS: I think so. The shipping lines are struggling because capacity in shipping has grown faster than demand over the last three or four years so they’re very focused on maximizing the return on their assets. The last thing they want is to have their ships (or containers) stuck in port so it’s really important to have labour stability.

Even though it’s a long time since there’s been a waterfront labour-related shutdown in the Port, what we’ve found is that the shipping lines don’t give you the benefit of the doubt — if they think there’s a risk, we’ll see diversions. It’s a great credit to the ILWU and BCMEA that they were able to strike a longterm deal and it has been a significant competitive advantage.

We are seeing the benefits of a longterm agreement and those benefits apply to both employers and the union.

The more we have labour stability, the more opportunity there will be to

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INDUSTRY INSIGHT strengthen the relationships in a constructive way between the employers and the unions and the better off we’ll all be.

BCSN: Last question: any advice for people entering the industry?

RS: One of the things that has worked for me is having a focus on doing something that you’re interested in and learning from. It’s important to me personally to be in an environment where I’m able to apply the skills I have

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to new situations while learning more skills.

When I was in my 20s there was an employee who got to his 45th anniversary of working for the company and that’s almost unheard of these days — it’s normal for people to have three or four or five jobs by the time they’re in their 40s. What’s really important is to be learning and to be managing your own development — not just leaving it to the organization you are working with. Being in an environment where there is inherent growth is definitely a good place to be — I’ve worked in declining industries in the U.K. and growing businesses in other geographies and the growing ones always tend to be more fun. There are more opportunities. BCSN

About Robin Silvester

About Port Metro Vancouver

obin Silvester was appointed President & CEO of Port Metro Vancouver in 2009, bringing to the position extensive international experience in both the Ports and Property sectors. Prior to joining the Port Authority, he served as Chief Executive for the property and facilities management business United Group Services ANZ in Australia and spent a significant portion of his career serving in senior roles internationally with P&O Ports including that of President & CEO of P&O Ports Canada, based in Vancouver.

By the numbers (2012) • Working waterfront in 16 Lower Mainland communities • 640km of shoreline • 124 million tonnes of cargo handled • 19% of Canada’s total trade by value • 160 trading economies • Jurisdiction: Burrard Inlet / Fraser River / Roberts Bank Facilities • 28 major marine cargo terminals: automobile (2), breakbulk (1), bulk (19), containers (3), cruise (2), multi-purpose (container and breakbulk) (1) Economic Impact • $172.4 billion total value of cargo handled annually • $9.7 billion in direct GDP • $20.3 billion in economic input • 98,800 jobs in Canada • 38,200 direct jobs in B.C. (60,000 direct and indirect) • $67,000 average wage for direct jobs versus $44,00 average wage in Canada • $1.3 billion per year in tax revenues Comparison • #1 in North America for total foreign exports (82 million MT) • #1 on West Coast in total cargo (124 million) • #3 on West Coast for overal container volume (2.7 million TEUs) • #1 in Canada for automobiles (.4 million units), containers (2.7 million TEUs), cruises (.7 million passengers), and total cargo (124 million MT)

R

In 2004, Robin relocated from Vancouver to London, U.K., and later to Sydney, Australia, as a member of the P&O Ports global executive team. Following the acquisition of P&O by Dubai Ports World in 2006, he remained in Sydney and joined United Group Limited and was later appointed Chief Executive of United Group Services ANZ. Robin began his career in the chemicals industry in the U.K. He also worked in business management and strategy roles in the steel industry and was involved in British Steel’s acquisition program. He is a chartered engineer and a graduate of Cambridge University.

Robin is the Chair of the Association of Canadian Port Authorities (ACPA), a Director of the Vancouver Board of Trade, a Director of the Western Transportation Advisory Council (WESTAC), and a past Board member of the British Columbia Maritime Employers’ Association (BCMEA).

Robin lives in downtown Vancouver where he and his wife, Clare Waters, enjoy cycling, hiking, kayaking and scuba diving.

18 BC Shipping News September 2013

For more information, visit www.portmetrovancouver.com.

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HISTORY LESSON

A history of women at sea

By Lisa Glandt

(Former) Librarian/Archivist, Vancouver Maritime Museum

O

ver the years, women have been depicted in book and film as anxiously waiting for their men to arrive home in port after long adventures at sea. It is this classic romantic notion of a mariner’s life that modern historians have shown to be one-sided — a growing number of literary publications have begun to explore the history and implications of women who went to sea and their role in an environment considered to be traditionally led by men.

The origins of many sailors’ superstitions about women are unknown.

Perhaps the most famous is that it is bad luck for women to be onboard a ship as they make the sea angry. Yet it is also believed that a naked woman onboard will calm the sea — thus the

20 BC Shipping News September 2013

*

Some scholars have noted that water is a “female” element and as such, women have powers over the seas that are denied to men.

reason for female figureheads found on ships. Some scholars have noted that water is a “female” element and as such, women have powers over the seas that are denied to men. As early as the 16th century, there are references to a ship being “she” or “her” by sailors. By the 18th century it was common to refer to ships as female because they were the sailor’s home and refuge that provided them shelter from angry seas.

Despite these traditions, women’s participation in the maritime sphere can be learned from the content of ballads, fictional narratives, poetry, logbooks, ships’ musters, newspaper articles, diaries and account books.

Historical research of maritime records from the 17th and 18th centuries has found that women, disguised as men, had successful naval careers. Women took on shipboard roles as cabin boys and able-bodied seamen and often rose through the ranks. It was easy for women to fool their shipmates that they were boys, as naval vessels often had a number of these young apprentices on board. They could easily disguise their gender in the ship’s loose uniform and hairstyles worn at the time. Many women joined the navy to escape a life of economic hardship or they were following after a romantic partner to sea.

Four of the most famous female sailors from this time were Hanna Snell, Mary Anne Talbot, and the well-known pirates Mary Read and Anne Bonny. David Cordingly, in his book Seafaring Women notes that it was common practice in the British Navy (and not unusual in the United States Navy) for the wives of boatswains, carpenters and cooks to go to sea on warships. While onboard, they acted as mothers to the boys in the crew and when the ship went into action, they assisted the gun crews and nursed the wounded.

Author Joan Druett of the book Hen Frigates: Passion and Peril, NineteenthCentury Women at Sea researched the lives of women who went to sea on merchant ships and whalers (the term “hen frigate” was any ship with the captain’s wife onboard). Druett studied the diaries and journals of

VANCOUVER MARITIME MUSEUM hundreds of captains’ wives and daughters who sailed out of North American ports in the 19th century.

Women on whaling vessels were often at sea for long periods of time — some up to five years at a time as they supported the crew’s endeavours. Many ships and lives were saved because these women had learned how to navigate and honed their shipboard skills so they could take command when husbands or fathers were injured or perished due to illness.

A contemporary perspective can be found in Saltwater Women at Work written by local author Vickie Jensen. She compiles the experiences of over 100 women, aged eight to 97 who worked on fishing boats, ferries, coastal freighters, deepsea vessels, patrol boats, tugs, barges, and charter vessels in British Columbia and abroad. No longer having to sneak aboard or disguise themselves as men to enlist as crew, many of these women continue to lead active and dynamic careers and have proven themselves to be strong, capable and

responsive members of the modern marine community.

Editor’s Note: This is the last submission from Lisa as she has now taken leave from the Museum to live in Germany with her

family. It has been a true pleasure working with Lisa these past two years and we wish her the very best of luck in her adventures.

Next month, we look forward to welcoming Lea Edgar to the History Lesson column.

A number of books are available that explore the history of women and shipping.

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September 2013 BC Shipping2/7/2013 News1:14:42 21 PM

Smaller ports looking for a piece of the action

By Ray Dykes

*

...there’s yet another layer of opportunity in the B.C. ports story, one that so far hasn’t been told.

W

ith Port Metro Vancouver seemingly destined to set a record for performance this year, it’s easy to forget there are other ports of interest in the British Columbia mix.

Prince Rupert rightfully scored more ink in recent years as it found its feet and recorded impressive year over year growth in containers, coal and grain shipments.

But, there’s yet another layer of opportunity in the B.C. ports story, one that so far hasn’t been told. It revolves around ports that rarely make news such as Stewart, Kitimat, Port Alberni and Nanaimo. Yet, each of these smaller ports has bold plans for their future.

Over 100 years ago, the Port of Stewart was a crucial point of call for sailing ships, but today it is known only for monthly shipments of ore concentrates and raw logs. However, it is creating a totally new port facility, aptly called Stewart World Port, which will develop into a diversified roll-on, roll-off facility with barge access, and

its own deepsea dock for ships that could one day be up to Panamax size.

Development has gone beyond the dream stage and is amid its construction phases.

Not too far away, Kitimat sits on the brink of major expansion and seems destined to become a public port if Ottawa has its way. Along with Prince Rupert, the private port of Kitimat will likely see huge expansion through the bevy of liquefied natural gas projects and pipeline ventures, some of which will surely become a reality within a few short years.

In Port Alberni, which has languished in the doldrums for years thanks to the declining forestry industry that once dominated Vancouver Island trade, there’s new excitement over a possible breakthrough short-sea shipping container feeder link to Port Metro Vancouver, or Seattle and Tacoma.

The Federal Government has given the port authority $225,000 to study the prospects of such a short-sea

service, which some say could help ease congestion at Vancouver’s major container terminals. Currently, all cargo received by the Vancouver port is loaded onto trains or trucks for transport to various warehouses and distribution centres such as Coast 2000 on the Fraser River.

Port Alberni Port Authority CEO Zoran Knezevic is already confident the idea has merit. He urges skeptics to look at a marine chart and see how most if not all container vessels now sail past the mouth of the Alberni Inlet on their way into Puget Sound or the Strait of Georgia and their major port facilities.

He is hopeful the study will show how container lines could save a day or so on each circuit by dropping off containers in Port Alberni where they will be barged directly to intermodal yards and warehouses for K-Mart, Canadian Tire and others with no significant loss of time. He even predicts shipping lines will likely be able to trim a vessel from their rosters because of the time savings.

In Nanaimo, where DP World is in charge of terminal operations, there’s also short-sea shipping excitement.

With a 20 per cent boost in cruise passengers this year, Vancouver was heading to better times.

22 BC Shipping News September 2013

Photo credit: BC Shipping News

PORTs REVIEW The mid-Island port has already started a successful daily container feeder service to the Lower Mainland from Duke Point.

However, the Federal Government recently gave the Nanaimo Port Authority $4.65 million — to be matched by local funds from the NPA — to revamp the largely idle and deteriorating Assembly Wharf. Once the major centre of trade for the port, the Assembly Wharf needs help, but now will be transformed into a short-sea mecca. Container shipments by barge will soon transfer to the Assembly Wharf rather than the single deepsea dock available at Duke Point and an expanded service will be offered.

Here’s how the major B.C. ports fared in 2012 and so far in 2013: Vancouver A confident Port Metro Vancouver President & CEO, Robin Silvester, predicts his charge will break all records this year for shipments and end the year at over 127 million tonnes handled. His port was already the clear leader for exports in North America in 2012 at 124 million tonnes and came in as the busiest on the West Coast, even when Los Angeles and Long Beach throughput is combined (for greater insight into Silvester’s thinking on the future of PMV see our Industry Insight starting on page 10).

In the first half of 2013, total shipments were up almost six per cent with coal leading the way; potash was up 26 per cent, but that was before the Russian antics deflated the world markets late in July; grain was up five per cent; and containers that were ahead by as much as eight per cent earlier in the year over 2011 performance had softened to three per cent ahead.

“We are the biggest show in town for export tonnage in North America,” says Silvester, “and we’re among the Top 5 in containers as well.”

The Asia-Pacific Gateway port, aided by a mix of federal, provincial and private sector funding, is still doing billions of dollars of infrastructure upgrades such as the Low Level Road Project on the North Shore to enhance road and rail movements; and the nine-project Roberts Bank Rail Corridor, which removes conflict between rail and local

traffic. There are numerous others underway or planned including the longer-term Terminal 2 new 2.4 million TEU container facility at Roberts Bank, which is through its initial consultation stage but not likely to start construction if approved before 2020.

The port is also “getting close” to announcing a decision on the bid by the Fraser Surrey Docks to ship coal by barge to Texada Island for transshipment to ocean-going dry bulk carriers bound for Asian markets.

Silvester notes that the year-todate figures to the end of June topped 66 million tonnes and knows the second half can be stronger than the first with the build-up to Christmas shopping and other factors.

In 2012, the port moved a total of 123,897,786 tonnes, up slightly by 1.1 per cent over the total in 2011.

Containers, at 2.7 million TEUs (20foot equivalent units), were up a robust 8.2 per cent over the 2.5 million TEUs of 2011.

On the cruise side, which lured over one million passengers in 2002 before the emergence of Seattle as a major rival, passenger numbers hit 666,240 for the season in 2012 and that was up less than half a percentage point. But, a 20 per cent boost this year has the passenger count trending back toward better times. Four new vessels made Vancouver their home port this season — Disney World, Amsterdam, Norwegian Sun, and Oceania’s Regatta — keeping Canada Place on the hop.

Autos, up 28.8 per cent year over year at 383,933 units, continued to excite as Canadians snapped out of their buying doldrums. Surprisingly, bulk such as coal, grain and potash were flat overall at 83.7 million tonnes (down 0.9 per cent), but that was still the major chunk of shipments handled throughout the 28-terminal port.

Victoria The Greater Victoria Harbour Authority draws most of its revenues

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General Commercial User Group We are: • a non-profit association for indivduals and small to medium-sized businesses who are lease or permit holders within Port Metro Vancouver’s jurisdiction; • an information resource and a member of the PMV nominations committee; • a network for people with common interests; • an advocate for government initiatives and policy. #29-3871 River Road, West Delta B.C. V4K 3N2 www.generalcommercialusergroup.com E: info@generalcommercialusergroup.com

September 2013 BC Shipping News 23

PORTs REVIEW from the cruise ship traffic that seems to love Victoria’s idyllic harbour and a host of on-shore attractions such as Butchart Gardens. So, when cruise ship calls drop, President & CEO Curtis Grad wants to know why.

In 2012, cruise numbers totalled 224 visits and over 503,000 passengers.

This year, the calls will have dropped to 200 by the close of the cruise season on September 29 when the Sapphire Princess heads to Seattle with up to 2,600 passengers. But, the fluctuation hasn’t got any alarm bells sounding just yet as Grad notes total passengers will be about the same at 500,000 because

of larger ships now coming into the Ogden Point cruise terminal. The biggest change this year was the return of Disney Wonder back to Vancouver, robbing the provincial capital of 14 visits based on calls in 2012.

Last year, the GVHA extended the 240-metre cruise pier at Ogden Point by installing a mooring dolphin 70 metres from its end and that encouraged Celebrity to bring its 1,033-footlong Solstice in 18 times this season.

When it comes to diversification, Grad talks of seafood offloads at Fisherman’s Wharf in the Inner Harbour, which were as high as 4.2

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24 BC Shipping News September 2013

million pounds in 2010. Last year they slipped to one million pounds offloaded thanks to the expiry of the Canada-U.S. Tuna Treaty, which was renewed for the 2013 season.

As well, the GVHA had 46 yachts transshipped at Ogden Point in 2012 and six cargo vessels called at the facility for hold cleaning, plus the cable ship Wave Venture continues to use it as a base.

The GVHA has a 40-year head leaseholder agreement with the Provincial Capital Commission, the public owners for the historic Steamship Terminal, and now has anchor tenants in place such as the Robert Bateman Centre and the Steamship Grill & Taphouse.

The aim of rejuvenating the facility is to create a natural bridge to a long-awaited Belleville International Terminal nearby.

That project, which will bring all ferries including the Victoria Clipper and the Coho and their passengers under one attractive roof, has been a GVHA dream since it was created in 2002. So far, Grad says the Authority has a functional plan and the province will decide how it wants to move forward.

A Master Plan for the future use of the Ogden Point cruise terminal and its surrounding lands is at the facility planning stage and the GVHA will take it to Victoria Council for rezoning before the end of the year.

Crofton Another of Vancouver Island’s private ports, Crofton boasts two deepsea docks and barge facilities and totalled over 633,000 tonnes of pulp and paper in 2012. Most of the product is breakbulk but barge traffic also accounts for nearly 300,000 tonnes. To the end of July this year, barges had moved 164,000 tonnes and breakbulk carriers for Swire and Star shipping lines another 170,000 tonnes.

Nanaimo The short-sea shipping project funding, which will total about $9 million, has been the recent headline grabber for the Nanaimo Port Authority.

The plan is to revamp the A Berth on the Assembly Wharf as a barge operation to allow for the expansion of the container service established by the

NPA’s terminals operator, DP World.

The largely unused wharf will then be strengthened to house a pedestal container crane capable of lifts up to 60 tonnes.

In 2012, the NPA had a loss of $530,000 and that should drop to about $200,000 this year as the Authority diversifies its port operations away from total reliance on forest products. The Port shipped a total of 462,190 million tonnes in 2012 and has already surpassed that in 2013, thanks largely to increasing shipments of raw logs. Container barge movements are becoming a more important factor and scrap steel exports are also growing.

NPA President & CEO Bernie Dumas, says port throughput was up by 45 per cent at the half year “and that was really good for us. Even with lumber sluggish we should be back in the black this year.”

While there were a modest seven cruise ship calls in 2013, next year will be a disappointing one for Canada, predicts Dumas, with Eastern Canada being hit particularly bad. Nanaimo is, so far, largely a repositioning port for the cruise lines and is expecting only three calls next year even with its modern new cruise ship facility.

Last April, a controversial plan failed to proceed for the Pacific Northwest Marina Group to make a $9 million revitalization of the Nanaimo Marina.

Dumas says he was disappointed the venture did not go ahead. An engineering and surveyor review of the property has since been completed with recommendations going to the NPA Board by the fall. “We will continue operating the

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PORTs REVIEW

A Master Plan for the future use of the Ogden Point cruise terminal and its surrounding lands is at the facility planning stage and the GVHA will take it to Victoria Council for rezoning before the end of the year.

marina and over the next five years we’ll bring it up to standard or we will attempt to lease it out again,” says Dumas.

Port Alberni The short-sea shipping study dominates talk around the Port Alberni Port Authority these days and CEO Zoran Knezevic, who has worked on the Lower Mainland in containers and trucking, makes a convincing argument that it will be a viable and valuable time-saver for container lines feeding into the Greater Vancouver market area.

“Port Alberni has been forgotten and under-utilized for a number of years,” says Knezevic. “One of the reasons why I came out here is because I could see a lot of potential for the Port.”

Meanwhile, there are other things happening too, with total shipments in 2012 of 850,000 tonnes — mainly raw logs and some sawn lumber — and total throughput this year is expected to top 900,000 tonnes as the Port is “doing much better”, says the CEO. Port Alberni was still $1.2 million in the red in 2012 however, and one-time costs including “horrendous legal fees” hurt operations. But, Knezevic is convinced the turnaround isn’t far away and says recent new business will help.

The Port has a commercial fishing fleet and a domestic factory ship now

calls regularly to offload about 500 tonnes of processed fish each month.

“We are really pleased and happy about this, it’s something new,” says Knezevic. There was also one cruise ship visit in May this year and that is always a special time for the Port and its community. A new Centennial Pier will help in the future tendering of boats from any visiting cruise vessels.

And Polaris Minerals Corporation still has an aggregate shipping terminal on its radar for Port Alberni. The company, which operates a similar facility out of Port McNeill, is maintaining its lease and rights in Port Alberni and will proceed if the market is strong enough.

Port McNeill This is likely to be a record year for shipments from Orca Sand & Gravel at its Port McNeill aggregates terminal.

Majority owner Polaris Minerals Corporation expects to top 2.3 million tonnes “for sure” after a strong first half of 1.45 million tonnes, says Vice President of Operations, Ken Palko.

Shipments in 2012 reached 2.03 million tonnes and 95 per cent of the sales were shipped to San Francisco with occasional shipments to Hawaii and B.C. Palko says there has been a significant increase in construction activity since the beginning of 2013. “We have

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PORTs review Photo credits: Hans Madsen of Eagle View Images

Polaris Minerals is heading to a record year shipping aggregates from its Orca Sand & Gravel terminal in Port McNeill. year to about 25 million tonnes, says Stevenson.

The sole container mover, Fairview Terminal, topped 500,000 TEUs for the first time in 2012 and retains its title as the fastest growing container terminal in North America. At 564,856 TEUs, Fairview increased 37 per cent over its 2011 performance.

But, if current performance is seen as “flat” it’s most likely the lull before the storm as at least $20 billion of liquefied natural gas and pipeline projects start to come forward in earnest. Two projects alone — Prince Rupert LNG and Pacific Northwest LNG — have a potential annual capacity of more than 30 million tonnes combined. And at least four parties have expressed an interest

had encouraging volumes in the first half and we think the second half will be as good as the first,” he adds.

Prince Rupert After double-digit growth month over month and year over year, Prince Rupert has been forced to take a pause with a “flat” result at the half year to June, up only four per cent overall.

Shaun Stevenson, Prince Rupert Port Authority Vice President, Trade Development & Public Affairs, says containers were down three per cent at 263,845 TEUs, while grain, led by wheat and canola, is still having “a pretty good year” being up seven per cent at the half year. Coal plugs along about six per cent ahead of its 2012 pace despite a 38 per cent drop June over June.

Cruise ship calls should total nine this year compared to seven in 2012.

Looking back, 2012 was a great year with a record 22.2 million tonnes of cargo and that was up 15 per cent over 2011. That could go even higher this 26 BC Shipping News September 2013

Photo credit: N.McLaughlin (courtesy District of Stewart

Texada Island The Lafarge Texada Quarrying terminal barges up to eight million tonnes of limestone and rock aggregates from the island and also transships up to 400,000 tonnes of coal from Quinsam Coal, the Hillsborough Resources Ltd. mine near Campbell River.

The facility is also in line to handle transshipments of up to four million tonnes of energy coal from Fraser Surrey Docks should Port Metro Vancouver approve that project. The facility has a 10-million-tonne per year capacity and won’t need to expand to handle any extra coal.

in the Grassy Point site offered by the provincial government as a potential LNG plant and terminal.

A $90-million new rail corridor to Ridley Island is under construction and should be finished by mid-2014. One of the likely new customers, Canpotex, has completed the environmental stage and is applying for permits while awaiting a final corporate go ahead to build a potash handling terminal. There’s also room for a new dry or liquid bulk terminal, and a small-scale bulk terminal handling mineral concentrates.

Elsewhere, a new wood pellet terminal built by Pinnacle on the central waterfront is expected to be operational this fall. No wonder, with so much action afoot, Prince Rupert sees itself

Aerial view of Stewart where the Stewart World Port rejuvination project is underway.

ports review as an 80-to-90-million-tonne per year terminal by 2020.

Stewart Once a booming town of over 10,000, as sailing ships called for gold and silver from nearby mines, Stewart is home to about 500 people today. Along with Hyder in the U.S., only three kilometres away, Stewart is looking for a new growth surge as a port.

One thing the town isn’t short of these days is dreams. One of those is the newly minted Stewart World Port being built by Arctic Construction.

Initially a roll-on, roll-off and breakbulk facility using barges, the plan brings back barge traffic to the largely idle Cassiar Dock owned by the District of Stewart.

Stewart World Port Chief Development Officer, Brad Moffat, says Phase 1 of the rejuvenation project using the existing barge dock ramp has completed its permitting and regulatory stage.

The second phase will see the causeway extended out to deeper water so a new 200-metre deepsea dock, capable of handling vessels up to Handymax size of up to 60,000 deadweight tonnes can be built, most likely by 2017-2018.

In future, that facility could easily be extended to handle Panamax size up to 80,000 dwt says Moffat, as the Portland Canal is “very deep”.

The aim is ultimately to have Stewart World Port handling mine concentrate exports and inbound ro-ro mine resupply and cement; project cargoes, and project equipment using an on-site mobile crane.

Skeptics said the permitting alone would take Stewart World Port two years at least, but Moffat says it was achieved in under 12 months. “We have had excellent community support; they want something to happen,” he adds.

Meanwhile, the only other game in town — the export concentrate shipper Stewart Bulk Terminals — currently ships over 135,000 tonnes a year of zinc and copper concentrates, plus some rock from a local quarry which it crushes on site into pavement aggregate. The facility is expanding onto another two hectares of land and will have the option of doing shipside

loading as well as by conveyor belt.

Dan Soucie, part-owner of Stewart Bulk Terminals, says the project, which has substantially started its rock fill phase, has completed all environmental requirements and is now awaiting its final construction permit for the expansion.

He’s also looking ahead to the start of trucking in copper and gold from Imperial’s Red Chris Mine from a site 80 km south of Dease Lake and about 300 km from the Port. And there are

about 10 other mines in the region that could still use Stewart to reach international markets.

As well, King Forest Products is shipping raw logs from the Douglas Channel and in 2012 handled 174,387 cubic metres.

All of this is good news to the District of Stewart and its population, which will gain from lease revenues from Stewart World Port plus some royalties, according to the district’s interim Chief Administrative Officer, Jim Kincaid. In

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ports review fact the impact of the resource development has the district working on a new municipal plan to determine “where this community is going and what type of community our people want”.

Kitimat Confusion over the private port’s status has the third largest port on the West Coast not knowing whether it’s coming or going although the prospects for multi-billion development still look good.

Federal Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver was questioned recently on a visit to Kitimat on why Ottawa was pushing forward with taking the private port under its wing without consultation. Talks may now happen as the District of Kitimat, at least, wants a voice in the federal move to public port authority status for the assortment of marine facilities at the end of the Douglas Channel — one of the widest on the West Coast.

And long-term politician and current Mayor Joanne Monaghan was one of those questioning talk of a public port happening without any local discussion.

With a major project list ranging from a $3.5-billion smelter modernization now underway at Rio Tinto Alcan to a string of LNG and pipeline projects in the approvals process that top another $30 billion or so, it’s easy to see why Ottawa wants to control the action.

Kitimat has three deepsea docks now owned privately by Rio Tinto Alcan and Shell Canada. But, that’s hardly likely to be the end of it with numerous marine-related projects expected to settle on Kitimat within the next few years bringing at least three more deepsea docks.

It’s enough to make 75-year-old Mayor Monaghan’s head spin. After 37 years on district council and the past four and a half as mayor, she would like to be in office to see the start of the major new work going ahead. The mayor expects an investment decision on the Apache Chevron Kitimat LNG liquefaction and export terminal by the end of August according to what the district has been told.

One small project is underway in the Douglas Channel for the BCLNG

Export Co-operative involving a bargemounted LNG plant and has had an energy export permit since February 2012. And Shell has opened an office in Kitimat for its LNG Canada project while BC Coast Pilots Limited recently held a meeting with the mayor and officials to help the district go through the process of private to public port, which they were told will mean increased safety for all shipping in the area.

While the reportedly pro-business Haisla First Nation owns much of the available land along the channel, it’s clear that some commercial investors would prefer to own rather than lease the land.

Ray Dykes is a journalist who has worked his way around the world as a writer/photographer. Ray can be reached at prplus@ shaw.ca.

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September 2013 BC Shipping News 29

The 21st century marine terminal: Green and automated

By Captain Stephen Brown President, Chamber of Shipping of British Columbia

H

aving worked in a number of ports around the world, including managing the very first Joint Venture Terminal in China in the Port of Tianjin, the management and interface of marine terminals with today’s highly efficient ships is naturally of strong personal interest.

In 1991, Gearbulk Terminals signed a 20-year Joint Venture Agreement with P&O Australia and the Port of Tianjin to develop and operate a breakbulk terminal. There began a challenging but in all fairness, an equally rewarding few years of my career. Named Tianjin Xingang Sinor Terminal (something in there for everyone) we were hardly a 21st century “green and automated” terminal but we did distinguish ourselves from other terminals with: • The introduction of the first semi-automatic (driver release) pulp frames.

• The use of automated vacuum clamps and core probes for newsprint and paper handling.

• Importing a fleet of advanced Hyster fork lifts including pulp and bale clamps for paper handling.

• The first computerized accounting and invoicing system in a Chinese port.

• A high focus on terminal organization, housekeeping and maintenance.

Whilst these were modest measures, they attracted much attention. On completion of development, in the subsequent three years of operations, we hosted

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...the issue of terminal efficiency is one that is being recognized as never before as the focal point of the supply chain...

numerous port managers, government officials, potential investors in other ventures and foreign trade missions.

Most importantly, the two overseas investors, Gearbulk and P&O Australia were paid dividends in excess of their initial equity investments.

For me personally, our recruitment and training of dedicated terminal staff to raise productivity levels to international standards, supported by computerized office administration, was particularly satisfying. Being only a couple of hours driving from Beijing, the port even nominated us as the terminal of choice for cruise ships but for obvious financial reasons, that was not our first priority of business.

I reminisce because the issue of terminal efficiency is one that is being recognized as never before as the focal point of the supply chain because it is at the terminals where vessels, trucks and trains converge. This puts immense pressure on terminal management whether containers, bulk, breakbulk, auto or liquids.

From his days at Tianjin Xingang Sinor Terminal Co. Ltd. — Left: Vacuum clamp handling of newsprint; right: Stephen and his team.

30 BC Shipping News September 2013

ports & terminals

The new EUROGATE Container Terminal Wilhelmshaven, Germany (left) and Rotterdam World Gateway (RWG) terminal set to complete by the end of 2014 (right).

The leading edge in automation lies undoubtedly with container terminals. One of the most modern is the Euromax Terminal Rotterdam consisting of: • Twelve dockside double trolley gantry cranes which are semi-automatic for higher productivity.

• Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) to move containers between the quay and stack.

• An automatic container landing system (ACLS) for automated landing on AGVs. • Dozens of stacking lanes in which container movement is carried out by two Automated Rail Mounted Gantry cranes or ARMGs, one on the sea side and one on the land side generating optimum efficiency.

• Feeders and barges which are given all the space they need at a 1,500-metre-long quay which has separate barge/feeder cranes at either end. Exchange of containers between AGVs and ARMGs is also fully automated.

• Trains which are handled at the on-site rail terminal with two cranes and six tracks.

• Truck drivers, who are pre-notified, can identify themselves with a so called “Cargo Card” and only need to exit their cabs when containers are taken from or put onto the truck.

Of course, the automation of container terminals does not come without controversy since the reduction in staff numbers required for automated versus manual operations is obvious. However, even a hybrid mix of automated and remote manual crane control offers significant operational benefits when multiple units of machinery can be controlled from a remote operations centre. Operators are presented with operation tasks only when their intervention is required to complete a pending operation, and their scope of control is usually limited to actions that are needed to complete that operation. Other advantages are: • Safety: A well-designed container yard served by automated cranes does not normally require human access in the stacking area and reduces the interface between man and machine.

• Predictability: Automatically controlled cranes move containers exactly as they are instructed, and in the precise order specified by the Terminal Operating System (TOS), resulting in a highly predictable and repeatable operation.

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The results of all container moves are provided automatically to the TOS immediately upon completion of the instruction, thereby ensuring accuracy.

Reduced damage: Well-designed automatic crane control systems produce smooth and precise crane motions, practically eliminating hard landings, collisions, and wobbles.

Because of this, spreader damage is practically non-existent on automatically controlled yard cranes.

Reduced maintenance: Although an automated crane may not always be more productive on a short-term basis than a manually driven crane, the combination of reduced operational variability and reduced crane maintenance will result in a more efficient operation over the long term.

Higher operating speeds: Fully automated cranes can run at higher operating speeds since no operator cabin is on the crane. In particular, fully automatic sway control, which is crucial for optimum cycle time during automatic operation, can be employed without concern for the on-board operator’s tolerance for dynamic motion.

Further productivity can be gained due to the fact that automatically controlled cranes can plan and carry out crane and container movements over the optimum paths.

Additionally, they lose time waiting for operators to make their way up and down the crane.

A final benefit is the increase in land utilization as containers can be stacked more closely in a yard served by automated cranes, and less land area is required for maneuvering of manually driven handling equipment.

Automated bulk handling: As world trade continues to expand, automated and intelligent technologies are also driving large-scale, high-performance bulk cargo handling terminals.

Key technologies, such as long distance materials detection, automated control systems, intelligent decision-making, grab anti-sway, path planning, video surveillance, and remote monitoring equipment, are all being routinely implemented in modern bulk handling terminals.

For example, a 3D laser scanner, an inertia navigation system and leading edge control technology are the key components of September 2013 BC Shipping News 31

ports & terminals

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Ports worldwide are under the gun for their environmental impact (real or imagined) on the urban areas in which they are frequently located.

an automatic intelligent grab guidance system with advantages being: • A driverless operation under virtually any weather conditions.

• Integrated safety systems for personnel on the ship and the quay.

• Monitoring of multiple ship loaders / unloaders by one operator from a central control station.

• Precision “landing” of grabs at any given point in the cargo hold, in any weather condition, at any state of tide.

The future green (zero emissions) terminal Ports worldwide are under the gun for their environmental impact (real or imagined) on the urban areas in which they are frequently located. For this reason, there are many initiatives to develop the concept of green terminals with zero emissions. One particular project is being led by Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics as the ocean cargo terminal of the future — powered by sun and wind. The futuristic terminal has no conventional power, uses no fossil fuels and releases no harmful emissions into the atmosphere.

32 BC Shipping News September 2013

With a name that will appeal to Canadians, the project is entitled Castor Green Terminal after an endangered species of beaver, being said to reflect the link between water and land.

The Castor Green Terminal includes a terminal and vehicle processing centre (VPC) to handle products such as automotive, agricultural, construction, and other rolling equipment and offers services for receiving and delivery, cargo handling, storage, loading and discharging, all in a sustainable environment.

Wind turbines would provide the prime source of power along with solar photovoltaic roof panels. The terminal would also be self sufficient for its water needs — rain water collected from its roofs will be stored in underground tanks and then reclaimed.

Energy usage would be reduced by using wind for cooling, sunlight for heating and light and smart-lighting sensors to ensure the efficient use of electricity.

Space requirements for the terminal would also be significantly less than a conventionally built terminal. Cars would be stored in a multi-level storage area supported by automatic lifting

equipment and conveyer belts. A processing centre would provide technical services such as the fitting of accessories, painting, mechanical repair and pre-delivery inspection of vehicles. The terminal concept is also aligned with the company’s zero emissions Orcelle concept ship thereby achieving a factory to dealer process of a reduced carbon footprint in the supply chain.

Container terminals are also increasingly investing in green technologies.

OOCL has recently ordered 72 batterypowered Terex Gottwald AGVs, as well as fleet management software and a battery-changing station for the company’s new Long Beach Container Terminal.

The ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, in conjunction with the Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority (ACTA), are constantly seeking new technology to move containers between terminals and outlying intermodal container transfer facilities with a view to eliminating thousands of shorthaul diesel truck trips each day, reducing air pollution. Technologies envisaged for the future include electric guide-ways, zero-emission trucks or electrified rail.

For its part, APM Terminals (Maersk) has set a goal of 25 per cent reduction in CO2 emissions by 2020 against a 2010 baseline.

It is also notable how many terminals across Canada have chosen to join the “Green Marine” initiative with a view to achieving an audited accreditation of performance and protection of individual social licence.

There can be little doubt that a combination of increasing automation and attention to environmental performance will be cornerstones of terminal design in all sectors of our industry.

This will require vision, investment and good judgment in procurement of the many alternative systems on offer.

One thing is for sure, our mid-21st century terminals will look and operate very differently to those of today.

Stephen Brown joined the Chamber of Shipping of British Columbia in September 2008. He currently sits on several committees and boards representing the interests of the B.C. shipping community. He can be reached at stephen@cosbc.ca. For more information on the Chamber, please visit: www.cosbc.ca.

FOREST exports

Forest exports: Old and second-growth opportunities

By Darryl Anderson

Managing Director, Wave Point Consulting

O

ver $10 billion in British Columbia wood and pulp and paper products were sent to export markets in 2012, according to BC Stats. Together wood (20 per cent) and pulp and paper (13 per cent) commodities were more valuable than B.C.’s energy exports (25 per cent).

B.C.’s forest products sector has been in the throes of structural change. The unprecedented downturn in demand due to the 2008 North American financial crisis quickened the pace of the rationalization of production capacity.

Yet, the globalization of the industry resulted in the emergence of new market opportunities. The most striking example is China’s rise as both a major consumer and importer of forest products. These forces have not only transformed B.C.’s forest products producers but have also had a knock-on effect on coastal shipping, logistics, marine terminal and international shipping practices used by the industry. In this article we take a snapshot of marine

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Over $10 billion in British Columbia wood and pulp and paper products were sent to export markets in 2012...

and port-related developments and probe to see what forest industry logistics and distribution challenges may lie on the horizon.

Market context The UNECE/FAO Forest Products Annual Market Review 2011-2012 reported that when American requirements for softwood fell in 2008 and 2009, many sawmills reduced their operating rates, and log consumption in Canada declined to its lowest level in 25 years. By 2011, the U.S. housing construction sector was only 30 per cent of the 2005 peak level of over two million starts. While U.S. demand has begun to increase, it still has not achieved the levels of 2007. However, Canadian exports of sawn wood and logs to China have risen sharply,

benefiting the forest industry in western Canada.

The most optimistic scenario for B.C. forest producers will see the re-emergence of their traditional old-growth market in the United States with a simultaneous robust lumber demand in the new-growth markets in Asia.

“Strong market demand, reduced production capacity and a decline in fibre supply leading to higher lumber and log prices has been referred to as the forest products super-cycle,” stated Paul Quinn, Paper and Forest Products Analyst for RBC Capital Markets. The key indicator to watch for the possible start of such a super-cycle is when U.S. housing starts are on a sustained trend to 1.4 to 1.6 million per year. While not predicting the exact timing of the forest products super-cycle, Quinn

September 2013 BC Shipping News 33

FOREST exports nevertheless remained bullish on the future of B.C. lumber producers.

Forest products production The B.C. forest industry consists of two distinct regional sectors due to different tress species predominating in each region. The Coastal and Interior segments of the industry have diverged in regards to markets, capital investment, market performance and export logistics practices.

High fibre costs and a high percentage of hemlock in the fibre basket were important contributors to the Coastal industries downward trend in Annual Allowable Cut since the early 1990s. BC Maritime Employers Association data indicates that, from 2001 to 2009, New Westminster and Vancouver areas were the dominant locations for logs and breakbulk lumber exports. Yet by 2010, the tonnage figures for the ports on Vancouver Island had spiked dramatically to become strong competitors to the Lower Mainland marine terminals.

Tony Marra, General Manager, Marketing and Business Optimization for Western Forest Products (WFP) stated that since 2008 “there was a shift away from North American markets to China but most recently the Asian markets have been flat with North America up”. As a result, WFP’s gross revenue increased eight per cent to $925.4 million in 2012. David McCormick, Director, Public Relations

34 BC Shipping News September 2013

and Business Development for the Port Alberni Port Authority, confirmed the strong growth of logs and lumber on Vancouver Island noting that “shipping continues to increase from their terminals as it has every year since 2009”.

Rail and logistics service Northern Interior forest products producers have two export gateway options: the Lower Mainland and Prince Rupert. Thus, Interior forest products producers remain heavily dependent on rail transportation for both Asian and North American export markets. Historically, forest product sector rail service issues have included the availability of car supply, service reliability, aggressive rail freight rates, and surcharges due to rising fuel costs.

When U.S. housing starts topped one million in March (on a seasonally adjusted rate) it prompted a run on rail cars. Lumber producers, oriented strand board, plywood and even pulp inventories were negatively impacted by the rail car shortage. RBC’s Quinn observed: “In the first quarter of 2013 ,the level of railway service and the supply of centre beam cars were inadequate to meet the level of demand.”

Forest products producers such as Tolko in the Okanagan have had their own recent railway issues with which to contend. In early July, a receiver was appointed for Kelowna Pacific Railway, suspending the company’s operations

between Kelowna and the Canadian National Railway yards in Kamloops.

On June 26, 2013 the Honourable Denis Lebel, then Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities, announced that the Fair Rail Freight Service legislation was now law.

Railways in Canada are now required to offer a service agreement if the shipper requests one. In the event that rail companies and shippers cannot reach an agreement through commercial negotiations, shippers can use the new arbitration process created by the legislation to establish the terms of service. It remains to be seen if this new legislation will be of benefit to B.C. forest products producers but David Lindsay, President & CEO Forest Products Association of Canada, stated that “ensuring a fair and balanced relationship between shippers and the railways will help the forest products industry retain and create jobs for the benefit of the entire Canadian economy”.

The fall 2007 opening of the Maher Terminals Holding Corp. Fairview container terminal in Prince Rupert proved to be a very timely gateway alternative for northern Interior forest product producers. As a key supply chain partner, Quickload Logistics is the only professional, fully equipped logistics service provider in Prince Rupert to expertly handle forest products destined for Asia.

FOREST exports

Bird’s eye view of Squamish Terminals where wood pulp volumes provide a steady source of activity.

Kristina De Araujo, Director of Corporate Affairs for Quickload explained that “since 2008, we have continually invested in developing strong customer service-oriented staff, acquiring innovative equipment, and implementing programs that significantly enhance Quickload’s logistical services. In 2010, we purchased the C-Loader, the first of its kind in North America. This machine stuffs lumber packages into containers three times faster with less wear and tear on the customer’s product, our forklift and chassis fleet, as well as eliminating the need for a permanent structure-type loading dock”. Quickload has also purchased an inventory system to ensure quality control and accuracy. In 2013, the firm implemented EDI (electronic data interchange) capability for their clients and was preparing a truck reservation system.

Marine terminals operations Pacific Pilotage Authority statistics indicate that there at least 17 marine export locations that handle forest products, including 10 terminals or locations on Vancouver Island, two options on the North Coast and at least five facilities in the Lower Mainland/Squamish area.

Many of these sites are located at mills at tidewater or at locations where direct waterside ship loading takes place and are highly dependent on the availability of breakbulk shipping services to access export markets.

Kim Stegemen-Lowe, Manager, Marketing and Administration for Squamish Terminals Ltd. informed BC Shipping News that their primary forest product export was wood pulp. Stegemen-Lowe

explained that “2011 was one of our strongest years and although our volumes are down in 2013 (primarily due to a mill closure in 2012) they remain steady”. She further observed that “as a breakbulk terminal, we were impacted by changes in our customers’ markets and competitive pressure from the container sector”.

Shipping services The emergence of new market opportunities in Asia and the need to take control of distribution and maritime logistics costs has driven the creation of a strategic partnership between Tolko, West Fraser Timber, Canfor and Western Forest Products to charter a breakbulk vessel to ship their product to China.

While the re-emergence of increased breakbulk shipping activity on B.C.’s coast has been welcome, the volatile demand for International Longshore and Warehouse Union labour on Vancouver Island has made it difficult in the short-run to maintain a sufficient local workforce to handle traffic peaks. This is resulting in vessel delays and higher costs for ship owners and terminal operators. The 2012 BCMEA Annual Report notes that for a “third year in a row, volumes on Vancouver Island continued at a high level not previously seen since the 1990s. These high volumes further challenged the labour supply, resulting in a third recruitment drive in as many years”. However, there were periods of extended congestion (for example, at Duke Point) that resulted in new procedures that provide for the travel of longshore gangs to Vancouver Island.

Photo courtesy Squamish Terminals

The introduction of a new short-sea shipping service offers the promise of potential benefits to Vancouver Island forest products producers. In August 2012, DP World introduced a new coastal container barge service that provides the ability to ship cargo between Vancouver Island and Vancouver.

Initially, the service was limited to cargo being served by shipping lines calling at Centerm container terminal but the operators were planning on extending the service to other terminals. The new lift-on, lift-off capacity provides more efficient cargo transfer by eliminating the middle reloading step, allowing customers to directly receive their containers and ship them overseas.

Transportation issues and market outlook As part of the Asia-Pacific Gateway Initiative, on July 3, 2013 the federal government and the Nanaimo Port Authority announced that the Nanaimo Assembly Wharf would receive $9.3 million in major renovations and upgrades. The capital investment is intended to improve the movement of international cargo in container cars on the 35-acre property. Phil Davies of Davies Transportation Consulting Inc. observed that prior to this announcement “there has been little to no significant investment in most coastal marine forest products terminal facilities, or B.C.’s short-line railways over the last 20 years and the efficiency of surface transportation operations is affected by infrastructure deficiencies and growing vessel size”.

Davies questioned whether the new BCMEA procedures would be effective September 2013 BC Shipping News 35

forest exports in the face of a prolonged period of challenges ahead for Squamish demand and suggested that considera- Terminals due to increased demand, tion be given to industry/government Stegemen-Lowe replied that “access cost sharing in incremental capital to rail cars for our customers can be improvements to the existing infra- a challenge today as we compete for structure that supports forest products space with other cargoes. That will before the start of any industry super- continue to be a challenge in future cycle. For Interior producers, growth in when demand for forest products export shipments may be constrained increases.” When asked the same quesby a reduction in timber supply due to tion, McCormick from the Port Alberni the Mountain Pine Beetle infestation.

Port Authority replied that the port When asked whether she foresees “believes containerization provides 1/2 pg v #1_Ad Del Comm 2/4/13 8:26 PM Page 1 any export logistics and distribution tremendous opportunity for niche

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lumber mills to expand their market… and is willing to look at investments to facilitate container shipping”.

While two Vancouver Island port authorities look to containerization for growth opportunities, Quickload Logistics’ De Araujo expressed concern regarding the shortage of empty containers to stuff for export. “Quickload has experienced this unfortunate circumstance a few times in the last few years, the most recent occurring only a few months ago and lasting four to six weeks. This significantly impacts our business, as well as our customers.”

While this situation was not confined to Prince Rupert, Aurujo noted those on the farthest reaches of the supply chain will more than likely feel the brunt of that stress.

While export volumes of lumber to China have risen during the downturn in the U.S. housing market, resurgence in home building in the United States could divert production back into that market. While forest industry analysts suggested that B.C.’s presence in the Chinese market could remain at least at the current levels, they nevertheless concede that it is difficult to predict how changes in lumber prices and demand in their markets might affect their future marketing, export and transportation strategies. Slower GDP growth and financial deleveraging in China are two of the major economic risks. Export Development Canada’s Commodity Tracker is forecasting a generally flat forest products price outlook over the next three months.

Those involved in the maritime logistics and surface transportation for B.C. forest products will need to remain nimble and adjust quickly to changes in either the direction, or volume of B.C. forest products exports. A review of some of the changes that have occurred suggest B.C.’s ports and marine terminals are up to the challenge but questions about our gateway’s reliability will quickly arise in the future if forest products rail service issues and car supply are not addressed.

Darryl Anderson is a Victoria-based consultant. He maintains an active independent research practice focusing exclusively on maritime transportation and policy issues. www.wavepointconsulting.ca.

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The bulk carrier evolution

By Syd Heal

I

n my view, it was never a revolution as it is sometimes termed. The evolution of the single-deck ship dates back to the steel windjammers of the 1870s and later when a succession of large sailing ship bulk carriers came into being. They were built for bulk cargoes like coal, nitrates, iron ore and other heavy bulk of the era. In the First World War, the U.K. government built a group of single-deck tramps of around 8,800 tdw which could be described as forerunners of today’s fleets. After the war, the Swedish Brostrom group built two single-deck ore carriers — Amerikaland and Svealand — for long-term charter to the Bethlehem Steel Corporation of the U.S. Of some 20,000 tdw, they ranked as the largest dry cargo ships in existence for most of their lives and paved the way for a number of specially strengthened, large

*

The concurrent arrival of the modern bulk carrier and the more revolutionary container ship saw a quick end to a great many conventional cargo liner and tramp ship companies.

Swedish ore carriers for GrangesburgOxelosund, a related company to the Volvo group.

Like most changes in shipping, the evolution of the bulk carrier got off to a slow start, but really became a significant factor as the wartime classes of standard ships went through a wholesale withdrawal from active trading when they had reached the 20-year stage in their operating lives and were faced with rigorous fifth quadrennial surveys and heavy marine insurance surcharges. As most of the war-built ships in Britain, the U.S. and Canada came into service between 1940 and 1945, the years 1960 to 1965 became the most intense in terms of scrapping and the launch of several classes

of so-called “Liberty Replacements” of which the British SD14 was the most popular. They were ‘tween deckers and were not called bulk carriers but did carry many bulk cargoes and were really a bridging vessel between the conventional tramps of the day and full acceptance of the bulk carrier as we know it today. By the end of the 1950s, first generation bulkers of the modern era where starting to appear on world trade routes and the arrival of the Andros Star in Vancouver is well remembered as it created something of a stir in local ship management circles.

It was one of the first group of bulkers owned by Orion Shipping & Trading (a Basil Goulandris company) with a ‘breathtaking’ dwt of 15,300 and

Photo credit: BC Shipping News

A glance at the waters off Spanish Banks in Vancouver provides a good example of the type of bulk carriers that frequent the West Coast.

38 BC Shipping News September 2013

old-fashioned union purchase cargo handling gear. The Andros sisters were probably the only bulkers ever built with Japanese Navy cruiser turbines, but effectively, they launched the Greek ship-owning fraternity as major owners of the modern bulk carrier.

The concurrent arrival of the modern bulk carrier and the more revolutionary container ship saw a quick end to a great many conventional cargo liner and tramp ship companies. Most of the famous names of the 20th century, so well known for their handsome conventional ships and seemingly as strong as the rock of Gibraltar, have disappeared into the pages of history. This applies to most Western and Japanese merchant fleets, but to none more so than the once mighty British flag fleets.

There seems little doubt that a contributing factor to the rapid decline of vast fleets in the last mid-to-late century was the issue of education for the new era that was dawning. Old management, used to the ways of the early 20th century, could not, in many instances, handle the transition to the new sciences of shipping that called for a higher level of education than that acquired in an earlier period where one started on the bottom rung of the ladder as a clerk and climbed into upper management.

Upper management sometimes knew little better and was riven with outdated traditions and a belief that promising younger men and women could not be accommodated on the upper deck of management so that when the change really took hold there was a huge shortage of management material who were up to the job. There was a failure to recognize that the shipping that was taking form in the last quarter of the 20th century required different treatment to the traditional needs of previous eras and this applied to bulk carriers almost as much as container ships and the totally changed passenger trade.

Reasons like high taxation have been offered for the decline of the British merchant navy, but I firmly believe, as a one-time Brit, that the lack of suitable education was a highly important contributor to this decline in its failure to recognize the need for new blood at the top capable of meeting the challenges of the 21st century.

*

bulk carriers

With much more effort being required to fully inform the public and with foreign owners flocking to the Marshall Islands registry in particular, a significant portfolio of publicly floated shipping companies have come into being since 2000.

Led by the wily Greeks and the “Greeks from the North” (the Norwegians and Danes), these three countries, with well-developed shipping traditions and small populations, have invariably shown the rest of the world how to build and maintain large fleets through boom and recession and, in general, stay ahead of the pack. Among other achievements, they were among the first to directly market contracts of affreightment to the primary producers of bulk cargoes which automatically brought them into the B.C. lumber, coal, potash and sulphur export markets through B.C. ports.

Here, the bulkers soon edged out conventional breakbulk tramp ships as

the first generation of bulkers became commonplace in the 20,000 to 30,000 tonne range. Before long, the bulk carrier owners were reaching for ever-larger ships with superior cargo-handling features and a new plateau was reached about 30 years ago with the introduction of the fully geared 50,000-tonne bulkers into the lumber trade.

A plateau in shipping is usually very short lived as someone succeeds in proving that they are only temporary and by then, a new system of size classification eventually became well established. Basically, these broke down into Handysize, (any bulker up to about 35,000 tdw), Handymax (35-59,000 tdw), Panamax

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bulk carriers (60-80,000 tdw) and Capesize, (over 80,000 tdw) with several variations in between that were usually special to a given trade. Thus Newcastlemax, Malaccamax and Kamsarmax have become established also and refer to size and draft restrictions required at Newcastle NSW, the Straits of Malacca and the Port of Kamsar in West Africa.

We see the Capesize at Roberts Bank loading coal and while all have a role to play, the Panamax and Handymax are probably the most popular in our bulk trades.

With much more effort being required to fully inform the public and with foreign owners flocking to the Marshall Islands registry in particular, a significant portfolio of publicly floated shipping companies have come into being since 2000. These are mostly traded at the New York stock exchange and on the NASDAQ exchange and have their following from a growing body of investors in the U.S., Canada and elsewhere (thanks to the internet and readily accessible media), who

previously had few opportunities to invest in deepsea shipping.

I personally follow the affairs of Ship Finance International, Diana Shipping, Navios Group (see BCSN November 2012) and Safe Bulkers as the best publicly traded companies with sole or significant interests in bulk carriers. This is done in detail as all have done a good job of breasting the 2008 recession and all have maintained a reasonable dividend except for Diana which instead has built up a huge reserve fund, enabling it to pick up prime distressed assets to expand its fleet. Except for Ship Finance, which is dominated by John Fredriksen, a Norwegian who abandoned his Norwegian citizenship after a tax dispute with the Norwegian government and became a citizen of Cyprus, the others named above all have strong Greek affiliations.

These are strong bulk carrier companies although Ship Finance with some 65 ships plus six on order in its fleet is well diversified with tankers,

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container ships, offshore supply ships and drill rigs in addition to bulkers.

SFI is different to the others as it is a Bermuda company managed from Oslo and London.

Navios has grown further since I wrote my article on the Navios Group last year.

Founding CEO Angeliki Frangou seems to have some special finance management qualities as there appear to be few who can work the levers of the finance market so adroitly as she does. Her tanker fleet has grown phenomenally since establishment about four years ago but her bulk carrier fleet still makes up the biggest part of a total of 125 ships that she controls.

Diana and Safe Bulkers are probably the two most successful companies that are wholly committed to bulk carriers.

Both companies entered the recession with a majority of their ships being covered by profitable long-term charters that saw them through the recession when many of their competitors, who lacked this protection, went to the wall or at least have suffered through a long period of recession-based misery, staying afloat with difficulty and sustained by meager pickings in the depressed spot market. Diana has a mixed fleet of 33 bulkers in the water and five on order. Safe Bulkers has the largest fleet of 24 pure Panamax or Kamsarmax variant ships, plus two Capesize and with eight vessels on order. Unfortunately the lucrative long-term contracts are expiring and can only be replaced with lower earning short-term contracts. No doubt these owners, like many others, are hoping for that critical upturn in the market that the pundits are forecasting for 2014.

As is typical, most ships within these fleets are actually owned by onevessel companies whose share capital is usually 100 per cent held by the parent named holding company mentioned above and all have their own special characteristics. Ship watchers of course have a tough job keeping up with the changes in these fleets as onevessel companies are not always easily identified.

Syd Heal, a veteran of the marine industry and a prolific writer and publisher of marine books, can be contacted at: richbook@shaw.ca.

oil spill response

Searching for a definition of ‘world-leading’

*

T

So what is “world leading”? And if B.C. is not already world leading, what will it take to become so?

Shipping News that public consultation through the Panel’s website garnered about 100 submissions (all of which, with the exception of those opting for privacy, will be posted on the website hosted at www.tc.gc.ca) and while there are no plans for public meetings, the Panel has undertaken a stakeholder engagement process across eight cities and included a large cross section of industry, government agencies, First Nations, ports and oil handling facility operators. Before submitting their report, the Panel is studying the response regimes of a number of countries — Norway, U.K., Australia, New Zealand, etc. which will make up part of their analysis.

The draft report will be submitted to the federal government by November 15. Captain Houston reported that their next steps involve establishing a definition for “world-leading” and working toward recommendations.

In late February 2013, the B.C. Government’s Ministry of Environment announced that it had engaged Nuka Research and Planning Group to

prepare a report on the current marine oil spill prevention, preparedness and response regime for coastal British Columbia to identify changes needed to support a world-class system. Nuka has provided the ministry with a comprehensive report that provides a good baseline inventory. The report is split into three parts: • An initial assessment and gap analysis of the existing marine spill prevention and response regime in place for B.C. • A vessel traffic study assessing the current and potential levels of shipping on the West Coast of Canada, and the current volume of hydrocarbons being shipped or used as fuel.

• An analysis to identify international best practices and the elements required for establishing a worldclass marine spill preparedness and response regime.

At the time of writing, the ministry’s communication department reported that Nuka was in the process of finalizing volumes two and three and were expected by mid-July. The report will

Photo courtesy Seaspan ULC

hroughout the debates on the Enbridge Northern Gateway Project and the proposed Kinder Morgan expansion, numerous references have been made to the need for a “world-leading” or “world-class” oil spill response regime. So what is “world-leading”? And if B.C. is not already world leading, what will it take to become so? There are currently three research initiatives underway to address these questions with one in particular focused on the ongoing and continual improvement of B.C.’s current system.

Both the federal government and the B.C. provincial government have recently commissioned studies and reviews of oil spill response and preparedness in Canada and B.C. In March, the federal government announced a number of steps toward the creation of a “World-Class Tanker Safety System”. In addition to appointing a three-member Tanker Safety Expert Panel, led by Captain Gordon Houston (former President of Vancouver Fraser Port Authority), a new Act — Safeguarding Canada’s Seas and Skies Act — was introduced in the House for first reading and eight tanker safety measures were announced (including initiatives such as increasing tanker inspections, expanding the National Aerial Surveillance Program, reviewing pilotage requirements and aids to navigation as well as scientific research on non-conventional petroleum products).

The Panel’s strategic review of Canada’s marine oil spill preparedness and response regime will result in recommendations submitted to the Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities and will focus on ship-source oil spill preparedness, response, liability and compensation, and governance. The Panel is conducting two reviews: first on the current regime in place south of 60o N latitude; and second on the requirements in the Arctic as well as requirements for a hazardous and noxious substances system.

Captain Houston reported to BC

WCMRC’s newest oil spill response vessel, the M.J. Green.

September 2013 BC Shipping News 41

oil spill response be released publicly although no date has been set.

Recognizing that marine spill responsibility primarily falls under the jurisdiction of the federal government, the Province’s report can be seen as a direct response to Premier Christy Clark’s five minimum requirements to be met before consideration of any new heavy oil pipelines are to be built in B.C. Research into land side spills will be addressed separately.

While both governments are responding to current public concerns over increased tanker traffic, Western Canada Marine Response Corporation (WCMRC) is also undertaking a review of spill response regimes. The organization is the only Transport Canada certified response organization for Canada’s West Coast. WCMRC’s review is part of their continual efforts to improve their knowledge base and best practices. “We are members of the Association of Petroleum Industry Cooperative Managers (APICOM) as well as the Global Response Network and we meet regularly with Response Organizations from around the world to share best practices, however this current initiative is slightly more formal in process,” said Toni Frisby, Project Manager at WCMRC. “We have developed a template with about 22 elements or questions — ranging from workforce structure to exercises to community outreach and mutual aid agreements — and we have contacted 12 organizations in total (five in Alaska, the Marine Spill Response Corporation in the U.S., the Australian Oil Spill Centre, our counterparts in Canada, NOFO in Norway and Oil Spill Response Limited in the U.K., which has operations worldwide to help give

even more insight into the various regimes).”

Frisby used the Gulf oil spill as an example of the extensive collaboration that already exists with Response Organizations. WCMRC sent 64 people down to the Gulf to participate in the clean-up of the BP spill and, while a painful way to learn a lesson, staff brought back good learning experiences that have been helpful for operations here.

The end result of this current initiative for WCMRC will be an internal report that gives a sense of what other organizations are doing and what can be learned from them. The report will lead to a gap analysis and then a road map or strategy for WCMRC to start to attain, apply and execute.

“The intent is not to judge the organizations or rank in terms of ‘world-class’, but rather to identify the various threads of lessons learned and determine if some of those can be applied here,” said Frisby. “The sole driver of this report is to improve WCMRC’s response — it’s for our continuous improvement and so we’re not attempting to make conclusions on behalf of others.”

Frisby pointed out that it was important to recognize that each Response Organization works under different jurisdictions; different operating environments; and different industry risks so the report will not provide a straight comparison between organizations. “Norway is a good example of highlighting the differences,” continued Frisby. “NOFO (Norwegian Clean Seas Association for Operating Companies), one of the three arms in the Norwegian spill regime, is dedicated to offshore drilling response, for

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www.greenwoodmaritime.com nsg@greenwoodmaritime.com / 250-507-8445 42 BC Shipping News September 2013

example. They have access to a very large fleet of supply ships that are all required to be outfitted with spill response capabilities and dedicate a certain amount of time for training and exercises. We don’t have that same situation or capacity here.”

A large part of WCMRC’s research will include looking at community relationships and how governments have tapped into additional resources at that level. “Through community outreach programs, we’re working to make sure people know who we are and our current capabilities. Our goal is to build on that awareness to enhance our spill response — for example, tap into their knowledge of the area to help us with things like setting up a command post or local knowledge of currents.”

She goes on to say that: “I think it’s valuable to appreciate the benefit of what we’re doing with our networking with these organizations — it goes beyond conversation — it’s an all-in support for one another. Everyone was involved in the Gulf spill in one form or another and it’s important to acknowledge that we need that ability to be able to cascade up to handle what could potentially occur. Everywhere around the world, the number of incidents have dropped. Double-hull tankers, piloting and escort tugs have all had a very positive impact which should be recognized. The likelihood of something happening has dropped but the consequences are still there and the magnitude of the consequences is driven by how fast you can respond. That’s why preparedness and the ability to respond quickly is so important.” International co-operation, through benchmarking, cross-border training and mutual aid is an important component of building a world-leading response regime for Canada’s West Coast.

While all three reports are looking for answers to the same question — what is a world-leading oil response regime for a marine environment — it is the federal government’s Tanker Safety Expert Panel report that, at the end of the process, will result in recommendations for Canada’s oil spill response regime. And while each report serves a clear purpose for its master, it remains to be seen how findings will, or can, be aligned. BCSN

Fold

to

VANCOUVE UVE R

TOKYO TO TOK O Y DALIAN D

YOKOHAMA

B USAN

S HANG HAI

S H E NZ H E N HONG H GK KONG O KAOH S I U NG KAO

Closer

is better.

Port Metro Vancouver is already closer to Asia than any other major port in North America. And with u n p r e c e d e n te d i n f r a s t r u c t u r e investment in our gateway, we’re getting even closer.

We’re building land-side projects that boost rail and road efficiency. We’re increasing our container terminal capacity and reducing on-dock dwell through collaboration with supply chain partners. And we’re operating with longshore labour certainty to 2018.

As a result, we’ve taken up to 3 days out of your supply chain. That brings your goods closer to market and you closer to your customers.

Fold

to September 2013 BC Shipping News 43

world spill response

The Norwegian experience:

National consensus and collaboration keys to success

I

n this first of a four-part series, BC Shipping News looks at the oil spill response regime of Norway, often the country most cited with reference to ‘world-leading’ spill response capabilities. Subsequent articles will focus on the regimes of the U.K., Australia and the U.S. but we start with Norway to take advantage of the insights learned by a B.C. contingent of stakeholders who recently visited the country.

Port Metro Vancouver was the lead organizer and worked closely with the Canadian Embassy in Oslo to bring a group of approximately 30 representatives from organizations such as Port Metro Vancouver, the Chamber of Shipping of British Columbia, Western Canada Marine Response Corporation (WCMRC), municipal governments and other stakeholders to Norway in June where they spent time in Oslo and Bergen with two primary objectives: • To begin to lay the groundwork for development of a B.C. Centre of Excellence in liquid bulk handling by seeking to understand best practices and successful promotion of the oil and gas industry in Norway.

44 BC Shipping News September 2013

• To bring together a group of those advocating for and against oil and gas development in B.C. Relying heavily on a report from Captain Stephen Brown, President of the Chamber, as well as insights from Toni Frisby, Project Manager, Western Canada Marine Response Corporation, who undertook a separate visit to Norway for a similar purpose, the following looks at some of the similarities as well as unique characteristics of Norway’s system. Recognizing that differences exist in responsibilities, operating environments and industry risks, studying Norway’s regime will help identify some of the key aspects and best practices that potentially could be implemented here in B.C. To start, Captain Brown provides a succinct overview of the development of the oil and gas industry in Norway: The Ekofisk discovery in 1969 was where it all began for Norway. In the decade that followed, several more major discoveries were made to the south of the 62nd parallel. Statoil, the Norwegian state-owned oil company, was created in 1972 and the principle of 50 per cent state participation in

each production licence was embedded into Norwegian law (although later legislation provided for some flexibility in the application of this).

The advent of oil and gas has transformed the Norwegian economy into the world’s 7th largest oil exporter and a power house of northern Europe with just 3.5 per cent unemployment.

However, some speakers voiced concern that the state has become overreliant on the sector and needs to more proactively diversify. For example, in 2009, the sector accounted for 21 per cent of value creation in the country — three times that of the manufacturing industry and around 22 times the total value creation of other primary industries.

In 2011, oil production averaged 1.9 million barrels per day whilst gas sales in the same year were an enormous 112.7 billion cubic metres. In 2012 alone, some $30 billion of investment was poured into the Norwegian energy sector.

Norway’s oil fund, the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, currently stands at around $740 billion. It is credited with being the world’s most transparent wealth fund and excludes companies considered to be engaged in unethical behaviour such as the production of nuclear weapons, the production and sale of tobacco products or connected to the use of child labour.

However, the B.C. contingent was also told that the fund holds at least one per cent in every stock market in the world including $16 billion in Canada.

To understand the Norwegian approach to oil spill preparedness and response, it is necessary to first identify the key agencies and their areas of responsibility: Municipal preparedness: At the local level and tasked to deal with small spills, Norway’s 430 municipalities are divided into 32 inter-municipal preparedness areas, each with their own approved contingency plan and each self-financed. Local authorities are responsible for dealing with

world spill response minor pollution incidents through the engagement of port authorities and fire departments. Each also has an obligation to assist one another and the government in the event of an incident of major oil pollution.

Norwegian Coastal Administration (NCA) The NCA is a government agency under the Ministry of Fisheries and Coastal Affairs whose responsibility it is to oversee marine safety in addition to ensuring national preparedness for oil spill response through the “Department for Emergency Response”.

The NCA also operates the equivalent to our Canadian Coast Guard including Marine Communications and Traffic Services but also administers marine pilotage throughout the country (helicopters are used extensively to board and disembark to/from tankers). The NCA responds specifically to shipsourced spills.

one of the only countries in the world that allows that.”

All oil recovery vessels, tugs and equipment are verified twice a year and exercises with emergency site managers, equipment operators and maritime crew are conducted frequently.

NOFO and its partners offer 50 to 60 courses per year that address all aspects of an oil spill.

Norwegian Oil Spill Control Association The Association is designed to satisfy an identified need within the industry, the oil companies and public institutions to join forces and resources in order to improve the overall

knowledge base of oil spill prevention and response. The organization’s mandate also extends to the joint international promotion of Norwegian oil spill technology and products and as such often attends international events related to spill response.

While there are similarities between Norway’s coast and that of Western Canada, a direct comparison between the countries is like “comparing apples to oranges”. For starters, Norway has a significant presence of offshore drilling which affords access to a large fleet of supply vessels used by the companies as part of their spill response plans. Frisby noted that the other big difference is the division of the national contingency

Norwegian Clean Seas Association for Operating companies (NOFO) NOFO is an industry organization made up of 30 oil and gas companies operating on the Norwegian coast.

NOFO, similar to our own WCMRC, manages and maintains personnel, equipment and vessels on behalf of members to respond to oil spills. They predominantly focus on spill response for off-shore drilling rigs.

According to Norwegian law, every oil and gas company must develop sitespecific (or geographic response plans) that are based on an environmental impact assessment, a risk analysis, field development plans and contingency plans. NOFO maintains five equipment depots located at strategic sites along the coast and provide training and exercises for members.

NOFO focuses exclusively on the emergency response centre — or Incident Command System of response.

That means that, during the preparedness period, all full-time employees are inside running the Emergency Response Centre. In addition, they do all the training and exercises. Toni Frisby noted that “they do a huge amount of exercise. They can also do oil-on-water exercises each year, being September 2013 BC Shipping News 45

While visiting Norway, Toni Frisby (WCMRC) was able to participate in spill response excersises. system amongst private, municipal and government agencies, each with specific and clearly defined responsibilities but standardized and co-ordinated so that in the event of a major emergency, the system is able to work as a single integrated Response Organization.

Captain Brown also recognized that: “On the surface, it seems a little strange that a spill preparedness and response system, having so many components, can function efficiently. However, it seems that it does, even though there was mention that some aspects are

Marine oil spill compensation in Canada

I

n Canada, ship-source oil pollution damage is governed by the Marine Liability Act and a number of international conventions to which Canada is a party. The conventions were designed to put a cap on the financial liability of ship owners and establish a scheme for paying for compensation, spill response and natural resource damage from ship-source oil spills. Liability limits are expressed in Special Drawing Rights (SDR) as valued by the International Monetary Fund and then converted into local national currency.

The present scheme for compensation for ship-source oil pollution is comprised of four tiers of coverage.

Tier 1: Civil Liability Convention and Protection & Indemnity Insurance Owners of ships carrying more than 2,000 tonnes of persistent bulk oil as cargo must carry insurance or other financial security to cover oil pollution damage. Ship owners are liable for a maximum of 89,770,00 SDR, approximately $140 million CAD, paid by the ship’s insurer, which is usually a Protection & Indemnity Club.

Tier 2: International Oil Pollution Compensation Fund The International Oil Pollution Compensation Fund can be accessed when the compensation available under Tier 1 is inadequate. This fund ‘tops up’ the insurance available under Tier 1 to a cap of 203 million SDR, or about $318 million CAD. Tier 3: International Oil Pollution Compensation Supplementary Fund Canada joined this fund effective January 2, 2010. The Supplementary Fund is available to any person having a valid claim under Tier 2, the value of which exceeds $318 million. This fund ‘tops up’ the total coverage to about $1.18 billion CAD, from Tiers 1, 2 and 3.

Tier 4: Canada’s Ship Source Oil Pollution Fund The Ship Source Oil Pollution Fund came into force on April 24, 1989. The current balance of the fund is about $380 million. The maximum liability of the fund to respond to a single spill is $159 million. This amount is in addition to any amount paid under Tiers 1, 2 and 3.

Thus the total amount of compensation available from all four tiers of funding is approximately $1.34 billion.

46 BC Shipping News September 2013

Photo courtesy Toni Frisby, WCMRC

world spill response under review. Norway’s ‘national consensus’ around oil and gas development appears to be the glue that holds it all together. In Canada, such a ‘national consensus’ remains a distant prospect given that marine spill response is the exclusive reserve of the federal government, unless there is an appetite for significant change.”

The preponderance of drilling rigs versus tanker traffic also helps the industry in Norway more easily define risks and develop contingency plans.

“It’s easier to do trajectory modelling for an offshore facility because you know exactly where it’s going to be. You can predict the flow rate and from that, if the worst happens, the currents and trajectory of the oil slick,” said Frisby.

Other capabilities of Norway’s system that differ from Canada’s regime include the ability to clean up 20,000 to 50,000 tonnes per day (versus Canada’s requirement of 10,000 tonnes in 10 days) with a 24/7 response time (depending on the tier of response capability, Canada’s response time ranges from between six to 72 hours).

Additional key findings noted by Captain Brown include: • Norway’s spill regime is similar to that of Canada in that it is based on the basis of “polluter must pay” however there seems to be complete trust that the government will reimburse funds that are expended in a response.

Government then deals directly with industry later to recoup costs.

• Norway does not have an equivalent to the Canadian domestic “Ship Source Oil Pollution Fund” but rather relies on the international regimes.

(See side-bar on compensation.)

With three reviews being undertaken by: 1) the provincial government’s Ministry of Environment; 2) the federal government’s Tanker Safety Expert Panel; and 3) WCMRC’s internal review with an eye on continual improvement of their operations, Norway’s spill preparedness and response regime could potentially hold some elements of best practices of benefit to Canada despite the differing systems.

BC Shipping News continues our series in the next issue with a look at the oil spill preparedness and response of the United States. BCSN

legal affairs Application of the Hague-Visby Rules to coastal trade

By David S. Jarrett

A Vancouver Lawyer with Bernard LLP

*

The Hague-Visby Rules are a set of laws created by treaty and ad-

I

n the recent case of The Owners and All Others Interested in the Ship “Mercury XII” v. The Owners and All Others Interested in the Barge “MLT3”, the Federal Court of Appeal dealt with the application of the HagueVisby Rules to a contract of carriage of goods by water between two places in Canada.

What are the Hague-Visby Rules?

The Hague-Visby Rules are a set of laws created by treaty and adopted over the years by various international conventions and set out a code to govern contracts for the carriage of goods by sea. A goal of the Hague-Visby Rules is to create uniformity of law intentionally. In Canada, the Hague-Visby Rules have the force of law pursuant to Section 43 of the Marine Liability Act, S.C. 2001, c. 6 (the “MLA”). Section 43 of the MLA provides that: • the Hague-Visby Rules have the force of law in Canada with respect to contracts for the carriage of goods by water between different states as described in Article X of those rules; and • the Hague-Visby Rules also apply in respect of contracts for the carriage of goods by water from one place in Canada to another place in Canada, either directly or by way of a place outside Canada, unless there is no bill of lading and the contract stipulates that those rules do not apply.

The portions of the Hague-Visby Rules relevant to the Federal Court of Appeal case described above and to coastal trade are Article IV and Article III, paragraph 6. Article IV allows a

opted over the years by various international conventions and set out a code to govern contracts for the carriage of goods by sea.

carrier to limit the amount of its liability for any loss or damage to goods unless the nature and value of the goods have been specifically declared by the shipper before shipment and inserted directly in the bill of lading. The value of this limitation is expressed in terms of “units of account” called Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) calculated either at 666.67 units of account per package or unit or two units of account per kilogram, whichever is greater.

As of July 31, 2013 this amounts to $1,037.80 CDN per package or $3.11 CDN per kilogram.

Article III, paragraph 6, provides that any claims for damage to the goods must be brought within one year of the date of delivery or the date when the cargo should have been delivered.

Importantly, the Hague-Visby Rules are mandatory and binding for all contracts of carriage covered by the Rules and parties cannot generally contract out of them.

However, based on Section 43(2) of the MLA, the Hague-Visby Rules also apply to contracts for the carriage of goods by water between two places in Canada unless there is no bill of lading and the contract between the parties provides that the Hague-Visby Rules do not apply.

The factual background before the Court The factual background before the Court was relatively straightforward.

An individual, who was not a party to the litigation, was building a home on Gambier Island. This individual contracted with a company to provide a truck and driver to transport building materials to a barge at Horseshoe Bay from a lumber yard, to load the truck and the building materials on to the barge and then unload the truck and the building materials on Gambier Island and finally to transfer the materials by land to a construction site on the island. The same individual also contracted with Mercury Launch & Tug Ltd (“Mercury”) for barge transport of the truck and building materials by water from Horseshoe Bay to Gambier Island and to transport the truck back to Horseshoe Bay. Mercury was the owner of the tug and was the bareboat charterer of the barge used for the water portion of the transport.

The individual agreed to pay Mercury for the tug and barge services on an hourly basis. No terms and conditions were discussed between the parties for the carriage and no bill of lading was issued for the truck or the building materials. The oral contract between the parties did not cite the HagueVisby Rules. There was no contract at all between the company that owned the truck and provided its driver and Mercury.

On December 4, 2007 after completing its second trip delivering building materials to the worksite on Gambier Island, the driver of the truck September 2013 BC Shipping News 47

legal affairs attempted to reverse onto the barge. During this maneuver, while the front wheels were on the ramp on the island and rear wheels were on the barge, the barge swung out and the truck fell into the water.

The owner of the truck commenced an action against, among others, Mercury as owners of the tug and barge on December 2, 2009. This date was within the normal time limit for commencing an action for damages in negligence but later than the one year limitation period in the HagueVisby Rules.

The trial judge had concluded that the Plaintiff’s claim was not barred by the passage of time as the Hague-Visby Rules did not apply. The Federal Court of Appeal agreed with the trial judge that the Hague-Visby Rules did not apply but for different reasons.

The Federal Court of Appeal rejected the truck owner’s submission that, as there was no contract for the carriage of goods between it and Mercury, the Hague-Visby Rules did not apply. The Court noted that as the Hague-Visby Rules expressly state that they are of broad application and applied to “any actions against the carrier in respect of damage to or the loss of goods covered by a contract of the carriage of goods whether the action is founded in contract or tort” the Rules would apply to the truck owner’s claim in negligence.

The Court then also rejected the truck owner’s argument that Section 43(2) did not apply as the contract was for a round trip from Horseshoe Bay to Gambier Island and

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www.flyingangel.ca 48 BC Shipping News September 2013

therefore did not meet the requirements that the carriage of goods was from one place in Canada to another place in Canada but was rather from and to the same place.

However, the truck owner was ultimately successful in that the Court of Appeal concluded that the contract between the individual home builder and Mercury was not a contract for the carriage of goods to which the Hague-Visby Rules applied based on Section 43(2) of the MLA. The Court concluded that the contract between the individual and Mercury was a contract for the charter of the tug and barge. Based on previous Court of Appeal decisions, a chartering agreement is not a contract for the carriage of goods by water to which the Hague-Visby Rules apply.

Although the Federal Court of Appeal noted that there was little evidence of the actual terms of the agreement between the individual house builder and Mercury, what evidence there was suggested that agreement was in fact a charter party and not a contract for the carriage of goods.

The factors that lead the Court to this conclusion included the fact that the use of the tug and barge was on an hourly basis, regardless of whether there was cargo on the barge and that the invoice issued to the individual house builder was for the hourly rate for the whole voyage, including offloading and standby. In addition, the truck was under the control of its driver at all material times and was never delivered into the possession of Mercury at any time for the transport, as would have been done in a contract for the carriage of goods.

As a result, the Hague-Visby Rules did not apply and the Plaintiff’s claim was not barred by the one year limitation period set out in Article III, paragraph 6.

Interestingly, the Court raised the possibility that it might have not made the same finding as the trial judge in terms of whether the truck was in the possession of Mercury and therefore subject to a contract of carriage.

However, the Court of Appeal did not overturn that decision based on the principle that appeal courts are reluctant to reverse such findings of fact made by a trial judge who has the benefit of hearing all the evidence and witnesses’ testimony.

Ultimately, the Court provided some guidance on the factual elements that are required if the Hague-Visby Rules are to apply to a contract of carriage of goods by water between two places in Canada. In short, if a party wants the Hague-Visby Rules to apply to such a coastal voyage, it must prove all the elements required in Section 43(2) of the MLA. The Court did not clarify whether the Hague-Visby Rules apply if a bill of lading was not issued. The contract in question did not specifically exclude the application of the Hague-Visby Rules. As a result, the lesson to be taken away from this case is that contracts, whether oral or written or evidenced by a bill of lading, should expressly indicate whether or not the Hague-Visby Rules apply. Such clarity will allow the parties to understand the rights and obligations in terms of both possible limitations of liability and should the need to pursue litigation arise, the deadlines for commencing suit.

David S. Jarrett is a maritime lawyer with Bernard LLP and can be reached at jarrett@bernardllp.ca.

September 2013 BC Shipping News 49

ferries

Federal cabinet shuffle signals renewed focus on transport Serge Buy, CEO, Canadian Ferry Operators Association

O

n July 15, Prime Minister Stephen Harper shuffled his cabinet, building the team that will carry his government into the 2015 election. Of interest to the marine sector, and the ferry industry specifically, is the splitting of Transport & Infrastructure into two, distinct ministries. We hope this indicates a renewed focus on transportation from the government.

Recognizing the changing landscape of transportation across the county, the Minister of Transport portfolio was created by Prime Minister Mackenzie King in 1936 with the appointment of C.D. Howe and the consolidation of the Ministry of Railways and Canals and the Ministry of Marine. For the next

*

Of interest to the marine sector, and the ferry industry specifically, is the splitting of Transport & Infrastructure into two, distinct ministries.

We hope this indicates a renewed focus on transportation...

70 years, the person holding this post would be responsible for overseeing Transport Canada and the federal government’s transportation regulatory regime.

This changed with Stephen Harper’s victory in 2006 when Lawrence Cannon was appointed Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities, adding responsibility for Infrastructure Canada to the role and eliminating the position of Minister of State (Infrastructure and Communities).

The 2006 consolidation of Transport and Infrastructure into one portfolio reflected an understanding that the two are very much linked. A safe and effective transportation system relies on well-maintained and supported infrastructure, and you need a wellregulated transportation system to make effective use of your infrastructure investments. This continued to make sense as the government was pumping out billions of dollars in infrastructure spending to fight the

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ferries recession in 2009. However, in 2013 politics. We look forward to her tenure Prime Minister Harper appointed Lisa as Transport Minister being a productRaitt as Minister of Transport, leaving ive one, recognizing the importance of Denis Lebel with the title of Minister of the marine sector to Canada’s transportation sector.

Infrastructure and Communities.

Despite this restructuring, we can’t While Minister Lebel was supportive of our sector, we look forward to this just wave a magic wand and isolate change signalling a renewed focus at transportation from the conversation Transport Canada. The responsibility about infrastructure in this counof overseeing the regulatory regime for try. We all know Canada is facing the transportation in a country as large and challenge of deteriorating infrastrucdiverse as Canada is a sizable undertak- ture which is already impacting our ing made all the more difficult when economic performance and competithe minister is also responsible for bil- tiveness. If we don’t have the infralions in infrastructure spending and structure in place to effectively move millions in funding announcements goods and people from coast to coast, our economy will suffer. across Quebec.

British Columbians know very well Minister Raitt is a capable communicator in Stephen Harper’s cabinet, and, how important ferries are to our transdespite some missteps earlier in her portation infrastructure, with countpolitical career, has shown herself to less communities across the province hold the Prime Minister’s trust. Born relying on them to bring in goods, and raised in Nova Scotia, she also tourists, and to connect people with is familiar with the sector, having jobs. Unfortunately, many Canadians, served as the President and CEO of the and sometimes governments, forget BCShipping_Half Page7_875x5_438.pdf 1 12/07/2013 12:23:23this PM fact.

Toronto Port Authority before entering

While the 2013 federal budget committed over $50 billion in infrastructure investments over the next 10 years, it’s important to remember that infrastructure is more than just highways and bridges, and investment in our maritime transportation at the same time is crucial.

Even though Transport and Infrastructure have been separated in terms of the ministry, they are very much interdependent and one cannot succeed without the other.

The Canadian Ferry Operators Association will hold its annual conference in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador in September. At the conference, attendees will be able to see the unveiling of a new study designed to highlight the economic and social importance of the ferry sector in Canada.

Should you be interested in attending the CFOA Conference (September 23-24), please visit our website: www.cfoa.ca.

September 2013 BC Shipping News 51

EVENTS: MARI-TECH 2013 CIMarE Atlantic Branch hosts successful Mari-Tech 2013

By Sandra Attersley, Metcalf & Co.

M

ari-Tech 2013, the annual Conference and Expo of the Canadian Institute of Marine Engineering, was hosted by the Atlantic Branch in Halifax, Nova Scotia from June 25 to 27, 2013 at the lovely Westin Nova Scotian Hotel. Over 350 delegates registered for the event with 39 exhibitors and 12 speakers in three sessions.

Mari-Tech 2013 also saw the first awarding of the CIMarE Medal of Excellence, recognizing an individual’s outstanding contribution to marine engineering in Canada, including technical innovation, sea-going service, substantial leadership in the industry or the teaching of marine engineering. This year’s recipient was Mr. Bud Streeter, a long-time stalwart of Canada’s marine industry and a worthy recipient of the inaugural medal.

On June 25, while the exhibition area was being set up, many delegates took part in the Shipbuilders’ & Marine Engineers’ Annual Golf Tournament at the beautiful seaside Chester Golf Club.

Over $3,000 was raised for local charities, including the Atlantic Branch’s charity of choice, the Halifax Mission to Seafarers. In the evening, a Welcome Reception was held in the Exhibition Hall where delegates and guests enjoyed a chance to catch up with old friends and meet new ones while visiting exhibits.

The technical sessions of the conference were opened by an address

Peter Cairns, Bud Streeter, Sandra Attersley and Jeffrey Smith. from the Honourable Peter MacKay, then Minister of Defence, standing in for the Honourable Keith Ashfield, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, who was ill and could not attend. Mr. MacKay briefed the delegates on the Government’s $488 million procurement plans for 18 to 21 new vessels for the Canadian Coast Guard. Minister MacKay’s speaking notes can be found at www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/media/ speeches-discours/2013/2013-06-26eng.htm. Following this announcement, Minister MacKay toured the Exhibition and spoke with several exhibitors.

The rest of the morning was devoted to the Procurement Outlook Sessions led

Peter Willliams (Halifax Shipyard), Minister Peter MacKay, Sandra Attersley, Malcolm Barker (Seaspan) and Laurie LeRue (Halifax Shipyard).

52 BC Shipping News September 2013

by Mark Seeley, Senior Director Marine, Public Works & Government Services Canada, focusing on new vessels and vessel-life extensions for the Canadian Coast Guard. Details are available at www.tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca/app-acq/sammps/navires-vessels-eng.html.

At the same time, the CIMarE Annual General Meeting was held. All seven branches from across Canada were represented and each provided a brief report on branch activities. As well, an Honourary Lifetime Membership was granted to Gerry Lanigan of the Ottawa Branch.

The afternoon of June 26 was devoted to technical papers with this session moderated by CIMarE

Lauren Solar (CIMarE National Administrator) and Gerry Lanigan, recipient of an Honourary Lifetime Membership.

EVENTS: MARI-TECH 2013 Honourary President Peter Cairns. The five papers presented were: • Scott Sullivan of Kidde/Marriof on Effective Fire Protection for Navy and Coast Guard vessels — an Overview.

• Colin Clark of Lloyd’s Register on Classification Issues with Government Shipbuilding Projects: an AOPS Perspective.

• Mathieu Magnan of Creaform on the Use of 3D Scanning in the Marine Industry.

• Gene Joelsen of G.E. Power Conversion on Electric Propulsion for the RCN’s Newest Ships.

• Tony Teo of Det Norske Veritas on Design Considerations for Energy Efficient Ships.

On the evening of June 26, delegates were “piped” on foot from the Westin Hotel to the Tall Ships Quay on the Halifax Waterfront to board the MV Harbour Queen to enjoy a cruise of Halifax Harbour. The maritime drizzle, wind and fog were an added bonus!

Folks disembarked the cruise boat at Murphy’s on the Water restaurant for a traditional lobster dinner with all the trimmings and some excellent Down East entertainment. After dinner, Bud Streeter regaled those in attendance with his reminiscences of over 40 years as a marine engineer.

June 27 was a full day of technical papers. The morning sessions were moderated by Tony de Hoog and the afternoon sessions by John Attersley.

The presentations included: • Hannes Bogaert of Marin Netherlands on Innovation in the Marine Industry from a Dutch Perspective.

• Robert Brendal of MAN Diesel & Turbo SE on Technology for Ecology — Your Clean Funnel Design.

• Joost Vos of Wärtsilä on Lifecycle Efficiency Through Optimizating Operation & Preventing the Unexpected.

• John Clarkson of Transportation Safety Board of Canada on the TSB Safety Watchlist — A Blueprint for Change.

• Cheryl Zimmerman of FarSounder Inc. on Forward Looking Sonar for Safe Navigation.

• Iain Braidwood of TeeKay Corporation

on Cracking the Crack Conundrum.

• Sunir Jain of Dassault Systems on How 3D and Collaboration Keeps Marine Projects from Sinking.

Copies of most of the presentations are available on the Mari-Tech website at www.mari-tech.org (follow the links for Mari-Tech 2013).

As well, delegates were given a presentation on Mari-Tech 2014, being hosted by the Great Lakes Branch in Niagara Falls, ON on May 8-9, 2014.

Details are also available at www.maritech.org.

Mari-Tech 2013 concluded with an informal “Finished With Engines” reception at a local craft brewery.

On behalf of the local organizing committee, a big thank you to everyone involved for another successful MariTech, including delegates, exhibitors, sponsors and speakers. We look forward to seeing everyone at Mari-Tech 2014 in Niagara Falls!

Sandra Attersley is the CIMarE Atlantic Branch National Council representative and Director of Finance. She served as chair of the Mari-Tech 2013 organizing committee.

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