The Lower Mainland's working river is a busy place. Log booms dot its surface and tugboats and barges ply its waters. Warehouses, factories and shipping terminals line its banks, increasingly sharing space with new condo developments.
But a lot is going on under the fast-flowing waters of the Fraser River. Wing dams, manmade islands and jetties work to narrow the river and speed the flow of water. Every year, the river deposits millions of tonnes of silt on the riverbed and delta.
The silt is a continual threat to an industry already beset by aging infrastructure and rising sea levels, say business groups, provincial and local governments and Vancouver's port. They say that an injection of federal money is needed to reduce the risk of flooding and keep industry on the river moving.
“The silt comes down the channels every spring and it's an ongoing problem,” said Dave Park, the author of an economic impact report commissioned by 13 Metro Vancouver chambers of commerce. “We really need an ongoing program of dredging.”
In 1999, the federal government halted its funding of an extensive annual dredging program of not only the Fraser River's main shipping channel, but also secondary channels that included Steveston and Ladner harbours. Since that time, Port Metro Vancouver has been responsible for dredging the deep-sea shipping channel in the south arm of the Fraser.
Park pointed out that the federal government funds icebreaking in the St. Lawrence Seaway, while the United States government pays for dredging efforts in the Columbia River, a shipping competitor to Vancouver, through a port tax.
At the same time, the province and the Fraser Basin Council say that because of an expected one-metre rise in sea level over the next 100 years, most of the dikes along the upper and lower Fraser are now too low to hold back what is expected to be higher and more frequent floods.
For the Vancouver port authority, the most pressing need is upgrades to the structures that help keep the deep-sea shipping channel clear and reduce the cost of dredging.
It all adds up to a hefty infrastructure funding request at a time when jurisdictions across Canada are competing for scarce dollars for aging roads, bridges and public transportation systems.
Richmond city councillor and farmer Harold Steves isn't hopeful that federal funds will be made available for the Fraser any time soon.
“My guess is the feds won't do anything until there is a major breaching of the dikes and then they'll take action,” Steves said.
Steves agrees with the chambers of commerce report's call for the resumption of an annual dredging program for secondary navigation channels. The port's focus on the shipping channel on the south arm of the river has come at the expense of fisheries, said Steves.
“The port did not take on responsibility of dredging the side channels, which are filled in by the port channelizing the river,” Steves said.
As a result, more silt has been funnelled to Steveston and Ladner harbours.
The City of Richmond recently reached a funding agreement with the province and Port Metro Vancouver to dredge Steveston harbour, home of part of B.C.'s groundfish fleet.
But it is still difficult for fishing vessels to reach Ladner harbour, the site of several fish processing plants, Steves said.
Even though dredging is an expensive endeavour, keeping the Fraser River open to shipping is important to the region's economy, said Tom Corsie, vice-president of real estate for Port Metro Vancouver.
While the majority of Vancouver's shipping activity happens at terminals in Burrard Inlet, Roberts Bank and Deltaport, Fraser River terminals such as Fraser Surrey Docks and an automobile import terminal on Annacis Island provide valuable extra capacity, Corsie said.
The Fraser needs not just more money, but for all of the industries and local governments along the river to come together around a unified vision, Park said.
“[Upgrades] need to be properly designed and timed, with each authority not just looking at their own interest,” he said.
But Steves sees two conflicting visions: one promoted by the port that sees the Fraser further industrialized, versus what he argues is more balanced land use planning by the Metro Vancouver and Fraser Valley regional districts.
That conflict is in play now around Fraser Surrey Docks' application to ship coal down the Fraser. The proposal has been fiercely opposed by environmental groups, and Port Metro Vancouver's environmental review process has been questioned by local governments and health authorities.
The terminal is also lobbying to dredge the river deeper to accommodate the very large ships that will become industry standard after upgrades to the Panama Canal are completed this year. The B.C. government's intention to replace the Massey Tunnel with a bridge removes one barrier to that plan.
Steves argued that not enough attention has been paid to agriculture and fisheries, sectors that will become even more important in a world affected by climate change.
“It's good to be focused on diking, but we need to figure out what we're diking the Fraser River for, and that's missing from this report,” he said.
If the dikes along the Fraser River are not raised, flooding similar to what Calgary experienced in 2013 could be in store for Metro Vancouver, said Dave Park, author of an economic impact study commissioned by several Metro Vancouver chambers of commerce.
His report estimates that $50 billion of economic development along the Fraser could be at risk if there were a catastrophic flood. If major highways or rail lines were affected, the economic hangover could be even worse.
“You could see all of a sudden a choking off of Canada's exports of coal, of potash and of grain that could have a horrendous cost in the short run,” Park said, “and a huge cost to the provincial and federal governments in terms of flood relief.”
In a recent report, B.C.'s Ministry of Forests, Land and Natural Resources said that because of rising sea levels, floods are expected to be higher and more frequent.
The Fraser Basin Council is currently working on a flood mitigation strategy for the region.
