Port of Vancouver hopes expansion under gateway strategy will win back business

The Port of Vancouver hopes plans to expand its export capacity can win back business it lost when Canada’s largest potash producer picked Washington state for a new export terminal.

It was a disappointment to Canada’s biggest port a year ago when Saskatoon-headquartered Nutrien Ltd. picked Longview, Wash., 350 kilometres south of its existing export facilities in North Vancouver, as its preferred destination for a $1 billion expansion for shipping potash overseas.

Nutrien cited rail bottlenecks in Metro Vancouver and labour disruptions in the Port of Vancouver as reasons for choosing Longview.

But Peter Xotta, CEO of the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority, said the port’s gateway strategy aims to resolve those problems with co-operation of the federal government.

“We think that we’ve got some things to offer and are anxious to get to maybe refresh Nutrien’s look at Vancouver, along with other bulk commodities that are part of (Prime Minister Mark Carney’s) objective to double trade,” said Xotta.

The strategy includes the port’s Roberts Bank Terminal 2 expansion, which aims to double container capacity at the artificial island in Delta.

Since July, the port authority has also worked on developing the gateway strategy’s business case to convert two vacant port properties, the former Sterling Shipyard site on the south shore of Burrard Inlet and Fraser Wharves on the Fraser River in Richmond, into new bulk terminals.

Both sites require remediation work and redevelopment, but Xotta said the federal political will to expedite permits could speed up timelines enough to make the Port of Vancouver competitive with other locations.

“Frankly, if we can get a major shipper like Nutrien interested in one of the sites, it becomes kind of, I think, a rallying cry for all of the regulators and government around making sure that things that are proposed actually happen,” Xotta said.

He added that typical terminal proponents are looking at timelines of three to five years to become operational once they make decisions to “hit go.”

“The new kind of paradigm that were in Canada, with some urgency around trade expansion, it puts us in a position to do that,” Xotta said of meeting those kinds of timelines.

The Port of Vancouver handled a record 170 million tonnes of cargo in 2025, with big surges in bulk commodities such as grain and potash, which set new records of 30 million tonnes of grain and 10.5 million tonnes of potash.

Xotta said to play its part in Carney’s objectives to expand trade would mean increasing Vancouver’s capacity by 40 million to 60 million tonnes a year.

Nutrien is already a major Port of Vancouver customer as co-owner, along with competitor Mosaic, of Canpotex, the potash export facility at Neptune Bulk Terminals on the North Shore. In September, Canpotex announced a $500 million project to upgrade its equipment and expand exports.

Executives from Nutrien weren’t made available to answer questions about whether the company would take a second look at the Port of Vancouver, but in an unattributed statement, said that “Longview remains Nutrien’s preferred location for a potential potash export terminal.”

“Longview would complement Nutrien’s existing significant stake in Neptune Terminals in Vancouver and our broader export network, which includes the Port of Portland in Oregon and Port of Saint John in New Brunswick,” the statement said.

Xotta, however, said the Port of Vancouver still wants to make its presentation to Nutrien to renew its pitch to the company and has “set up discussions with them in the coming weeks.”

Besides Nutrien, the Port of Vancouver might have other potential bulk-commodity tenants in line for the Fraser Wharves site. The port authority opened an expressions of interest process to solicit proposals to use the site. That process closed in September, which Xotta said may yield “an ideal candidate.”