By Leo Quigley, AJOT The recession seems to be coming to an end on Canada’s West Coast with traffic at its two largest ports, Port Metro Vancouver and the Port of Prince Rupert, on the increase once again. At Port Metro Vancouver total teus handled to the end of March 2012 increased by 7.1% compared to the same period last year, with coal exports topping 5 million, a 10% jump. The Port of Prince Rupert experienced an overall increase of a whopping 95.4% compared to 2011. Bulk break bulk cargo is also up over 14% at 6.66 million tons through April. This includes a whopping 26% increase (1.74 million tons) of grain, predominately headed for Asia. But these numbers only provide a litmus test of global trade activity and Canada’s contribution to it. There are other indicators north of the border – projects that come under the direct control of the transportation industry in Western Canada and both levels of government - that have remained on the books throughout the downturn and are now adding to the feeling of optimism. Without question, they are projects and new initiatives that will permanently change traffic patterns and commodity mixes on Canada’s West Coast Some of these changes do not involve bricks and mortar, but a new and unusual level of cooperation between the transportation industry, the provincial government and Ottawa that has been fundamental to building what has become Canada’s Asia Pacific Gateway. Labor Peace Another major building block has been the new, and unusual, agreement entered into by employers at the major ports represented by the British Columbia Maritime Employers Association and dockworkers represented by the ILWU Local 514 that will bring labor peace to the waterfront until at least March 31, 2018. To shippers who have followed the rocky road of labor negotiations on the West Coast over the years, particularly at Port Metro Vancouver, the ratification of the collective agreement in early February of this year has brought a sense of relief throughout the transportation industry both in Canada and offshore - and the confidence needed for industry to invest heavily in the infrastructure necessary to keep Canadian goods and resource commodities flowing to world markets. Billions spent, billions needed The amount of these investments by industry and government is difficult to determine. However, Christy Clark, Premier of B.C., provided estimates recently when she announced the Provincial Government’s Pacific Gateway Transportation Strategy 2012-2020 together with a Cdn$700 million provincial investment towards future infrastructure projects. In making the announcement at Neptune Terminals bulk loading facility in Vancouver, Clark said Cdn$22 billion has already been invested in increasing the capacity of the West Coast Gateway by private industry since 2005 but an additional Cdn$25 billion in public and private sector investment is still required to meet future Asian demands. Supply chain communication A major change, which like a labor agreement does not involve large capital expenditures, is the collaboration agreements both major railways have entered into with shippers, terminal operators and the ports. They are agreements that Claude Mongeau, president and chief executive officer of CN has described as a daily process where: “Every morning, CN and terminal operators at the Port receive a scorecard that shows how well our teams are meeting our commitments to each other. Did the trains arrive on time? How many containers arrived? How many were moved? How many train slots were filled? How many boxes have been on the ground for more than 72 hours? With such key performance indicators, we can see where we need to do something. That’s the beauty of having transparent information. If we know two or three days ahead of time we could have an issue, we can start to do something about it now.” With these agreements in place both railways have been able to raise their productivity and reliability benchmarks in a part of North America with diffi