Roberts Bank Just Put B.C.’s Port Future on a National-Interest Clock

Roberts Bank Terminal 2 is no longer just another long-running B.C. infrastructure file. Ottawa announced Friday that the Delta port expansion has been listed as a project of national interest under the Building Canada Act, a move the federal government says provides immediate regulatory certainty while maintaining environmental safeguards and Indigenous consultation.

The scale is not small. Transport Canada describes RBT2 as a $5.9-billion investment led by the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority, with a final investment decision targeted by mid-2027 and commercial operations accelerated by up to four years, from 2039 to 2035. Ottawa says the project would add 2.4 million containers of annual capacity, expand the Port of Vancouver’s container capacity by about 50%, support up to $100 billion in annual trade, support roughly 17,000 supply-chain jobs and contribute about $3 billion annually to GDP.

Those numbers make the political lesson unavoidable. The NDP spent years telling British Columbians it could balance growth, climate, reconciliation and affordability. Roberts Bank now demands proof, not slogans. If B.C. is a trade gateway, the public should see a gateway scoreboard: permits, conditions, deadlines, local infrastructure impacts, Indigenous commitments and environmental monitoring, all tracked in plain language.

The federal Major Projects Office says RBT2 is a proposed three-berth container terminal at Roberts Bank in Delta, with a marine landmass and wharf, a widened causeway for road and rail, an expanded tug basin, and terminal buildings, rail, equipment and related infrastructure. The office also says the project has already gone through years of regulatory review, including a federal environmental assessment decision statement in 2023, and is now pending final permits.

That does not erase the coastal stakes. Tsawwassen First Nation’s statement is careful and important: its position is “consent, but not unconditional support.” TFN says Roberts Bank is in the core of its territory, cites continuing concerns about the Fraser estuary and Salish Sea, and says years of engagement secured accommodations for harvesters, environmental protections, oversight commitments, and economic and social opportunities. Canada, TFN says, has committed that the Building Canada Act will not weaken environmental protections or cut corners on oversight.

That is the standard British Columbians should hold every government to. Faster cannot mean sloppier. Consultation cannot become theatre. Environmental conditions cannot become fine print. And economic urgency cannot be used as an excuse for another decade of opaque process, blown timelines and political blame-shifting.

Roberts Bank is the kind of project that exposes whether B.C. can still build. The NDP record left voters with doubts on cost control, permitting speed and resource-economy confidence. This file now gives the province a hard test: move freight, protect the coast, honour treaty rights, and show the receipts in public.