"The Port of Prince Rupert experience proves that modern-day investment in resource extraction, processing, manufacturing, and transport still provides a middle-class lifestyle."
Given today’s extraordinary threat to the livelihoods of middle-class and lower-income workers and families, I thought it worthwhile to share Prince Rupert’s experience of the past twenty years, in the hope of encouraging action on all the positive talk of placing more emphasis on our resources, manufacturing, and trading capacity.
A recent tour of the projects underway on South Kaien Island and Ridley Island inspired me to write about Fairview Container Terminal's legacy as I see it.
Of course, the legacy I refer to covers the terminal's infancy and childhood. Today, the local container industry is being guided through adolescence, and we know how important those years are. I will comment on the new projects to restore the terminal's legacy and lay down some new markers.
Kurt Slocombe, the VP of Operations, Planning & Infrastructure at the Prince Rupert Port Authority, led the tour, which included Prince Rupert Mayor Pond and Councillor Adey. The tour included a visit to the construction underway on Ridley Island.
Kurt’s enthusiasm for his new work reminded me of when we were part of Maher Terminal’s management team, the original operator of the Fairview Container Terminal.
1. Overcoming the naysayers
The Prince Rupert Port Authority, the City of Prince Rupert, and First Nations had to convince everyone that the Prince Rupert Port was a viable location for a container terminal.
Conventional wisdom held that a container terminal required a sizeable local market to sustain itself. There was concern over CN’s lack of a convenient option to Vancouver during a disruption.
During my days with the Prince Rupert/Port Edward Economic Development Corp, many steamship lines told me they did not believe CN would aggressively support a terminal in Prince Rupert.
2. The people who benefitted
Before Fairview Container Terminal, Prince Rupert was a significant manufacturing and export hub.
The industrial workers were fishers, loggers, cannery and mill workers, longshore and export terminal workers, tugboat operators, and trade-certified workers—all workers whose jobs did not require a college diploma or university degree.
Fairview Container Terminal and its off-terminal logistics partners also do not require employees to have college diplomas or degrees. The local workforce was a natural fit for the container-handling industry.
3. Incomes
According to the 2001 and 2021 census and the Bank of Canada Inflation Calculator, the average household income in real dollars increased from $85,386 in 2001 to $113,200 in 2020 in Prince Rupert. This amounts to an additional $28,014 to spend or save.
Note: This number will likely decline in the 2026 Census due to recent reductions in volume.
4. Proving the naysayers
In its early years, Fairview Container Terminal was recognized as the fastest-growing port in North America. In 2019, the terminal, operated by DP World, achieved a record volume of 1.2 million Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units (TEUs).
These accomplishments proved that the Port of Prince Rupert was a viable player within the Asia-Pacific maritime industry, helping the Prince Rupert Port Authority and the City of Prince Rupert secure liquid energy export terminals on Watson and Ridley Islands.
5. Movement on economic reconciliation with Indigenous nations
The journey was rocky early on and is by no means complete now. The trials and errors surrounding the Fairview Container Terminal process provided valuable lessons that led to progress.
Advancements were made in employment, training, throughput rents, land transfers, contracts, Indigenous-owned construction and trucking companies, equity ownership, and project ownership.
The challenges in 2025
The pandemic, wars, geopolitical realignments, and the relocation of manufacturing are upending shipping services and vessel assignments—and now, the upending of North America’s trade integration.
In 2004, all container terminals on the West Coast of Canada and the U.S. were bogged down by too much volume. Today, they have all expanded and updated equipment and operating systems. Container terminals on Mexico’s West Coast are undergoing significant expansion and upgrades.
The Port of Prince Rupert is determinedly countering these threats.
The Metlakatla Development Corporation and Prince Rupert Port Authority have two projects designed to improve the Port’s competitive position in the Asia-Pacific container space.
CANXPORT – Proponent: Prince Rupert Port Authority
CANXPORT is a land, rail, road, and infrastructure development that will provide innovative, large-scale export transloading capacity to address the imbalance between loaded and unloaded containers along the Northern Corridor.
Every container arrives in North America loaded with paying cargo, while seventy-five percent of containers return empty to Asia. This imbalance causes financial and operational issues throughout all North American corridors.
Empty storage must be found. Vessels and trains must be assigned to reposition empty containers outside regularly scheduled services. Otherwise, terminals get congested, and production slows down.
The most effective way to reduce the imbalance is to fill more containers with bulk commodities like lumber, ore concentrates, plastic pellets, pulp, and grain in Prince Rupert.
At full capacity, Phase 1 of CANXPORT will handle/stuff an additional 400,000 20-foot equivalent containers (TEUs) annually, eventually reaching a capacity of 750,000 TEUs.
South Kaien Import Logistics Park (SKILP) – Proponents: Metlakatla Development Corporation and Prince Rupert Port Authority
SKILP is an Indigenous-led 56-acre land development to accommodate transloading facilities for import containers.
This facility will offer services like consolidating the contents of three 40-foot containers into two 53-foot containers. This reduces the number of rail cars and trucks required to move cargo to its final destination, decreasing congestion on the Northern Corridor.
Community-focused investments
Together, the two projects will approach an investment of one billion dollars when they are fully built out. This in itself is a milestone accomplishment for two local organizations.
Investments in container volumes will restore average household incomes to the highs enjoyed in 2020 and drive them even higher, providing a middle-class lifestyle for more local workers without a college or university degree.
The Prince Rupert Port Authority and Metlakatla Development Corporation are focused on improving the Port of Prince Rupert’s value proposition in the container sector, and they should be recognized for this.
Handling containers on and off the Fairview Container Terminal remains exceptionally beneficial to Prince Rupert, Port Edward, and the local First Nations workers.
These were the jobs that, in the 1950s, raised my family into the middle class.
The Port of Prince Rupert experience proves that modern-day investment in resource extraction, processing, manufacturing, and transport still provides a middle-class lifestyle to those without a higher education.
Jim Rushton is a 46-year veteran of BC's resource and transportation sectors, with experience in union representation, economic development, and terminal management.