Ep. 241: What is the future of shipping on our coast?

Guest: Kevin Obermeyer, Pacific Pilotage Authority & Robert Lewis-Manning, BC Chamber of Shipping

As seaports on the West Coast of North America, Vancouver and Prince Rupert play a vital role in the economy of the country, both import and export.

If we buy any goods from Asia, they come into the country through these ports.

If Canadian producers want to sell our goods to the world, most of them produced this side of the Great Lakes pass through West Coast ports. Year after year, more than 12,000 ships that require a licensed pilot on-board came and go safely.

The questions that currently hang over the industry and the waters of the West Coast are an increase in oil tankers and the impact all of the ships have during the two plus months when the southern resident whale population visits the Salish Sea.

And then add in Bill C-48 and the impact it may have on the movement of oil-based resources, and we’re left wondering what is the state of shipping on the west coast.

We invited Kevin Obermeyer, the CEO of the Pacific Pilotage Authority, and Robert Lewis-Manning of the BC Chamber of Shipping to join us for a Conversation That Matters about the state of shipping on Canada’s West Coast, the track record, the challenges and the opportunities.