B.C. issues environmental assessment certificate for Roberts Bank Terminal 2 project

A B.C. environmental assessment certificate has been issued to Vancouver Fraser Port Authority for the proposed Roberts Bank Terminal 2 in Delta, which follows federal approval earlier this year.

The $3.5 billion Roberts Bank Terminal 2 expansion project is a three-berth marine container terminal. It will require widening the existing causeway to accommodate additional rail, road and utilities and expanded tug-boat basin.

The terminal expansion plan includes doubling the footprint of the current 85-hectare Deltaport container terminal with offshore landfill.  The terminal would add an estimated 2.4 million 20-foot-equivalent units (TEUs) for the Port of Vancouver and would increase container capacity on by 30 per cent.  

The decision to issue a provincial certificate was made by George Heyman, Minister of Environment and Climate Change Strategy and Rob Fleming, Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure based on the B.C. Environmental Assessment Office’s (EAO) report on the environmental assessment. The provincial certificate contains requirements for the project on matters that fall under provincial jurisdiction.

The ministers noted that with the project almost entirely on federal lands, within federal jurisdiction and approved by the federal government, a decision not to issue a B.C. certificate could not prohibit the project from going forward and issuing the certificate with provincial requirements safeguards provincial interests.

The environmental assessment was conducted by a federal review panel on behalf of both levels of government. It involved extensive consultation with technical experts, federal and provincial agencies, local governments, 48 First Nations and the public. The federal government approved the project on April 20, 2023, imposing 370 requirements within its jurisdiction to address environmental effects.

The EAO also established an advisory provincial review team for the project, made up of provincial and local government staff with expertise on relevant provincial matters, who contributed to the provincial report.