February 2, 2026 | Page 38

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

CANADA TRADE AND LOGISTICS

this will become increasingly important as Canada focuses on extending its international presence.

“ Improving our access to global markets will require some investment at the port marine terminals to handle increased volumes, but also improvements in the supply chain,” he added.“ All of which are things that we have had our attention on for well over a decade, but now, against this current backdrop, there’ s more urgency.”

Those investments include the Roberts Bank Terminal 2 Project, a new three-berth marine container terminal, which will add 2.4 million TEUs of container capacity annually. Terminal operations are set to begin in the mid- 2030s.

“ It’ ll be the single biggest container terminal project on the West Coast, at least that I’ m aware of,” Xotta said.“ This is certainly a big deal in trans-Pacific trade and will position Vancouver to continue to grow and serve Canada.”

Other planned investments focus on supporting supply chain durability and efficiency. These include first- and lastmile projects to improve the volume and operations of railways coming into the port, as well as physical infrastructure and technology initiatives planned to optimize and better forecast demand.

“ The volatility that we’ ve experienced— partly due to geopolitics but also weatherrelated events— [ has ] really reinforced the need for us to build more resiliency into the supply chain to the extent that we can and also develop more advanced tools for forecasting when we’ re going to experience an event and what the consequence or reaction is to those things,” Xotta said.

The Port of Montreal offers logistical connectivity for companies seeking to grow trade across Québec, Ontario and the US Midwest.

“ Thanks to its strategic location, exporters can access these key markets within 48 hours of transit from Montreal,” Gascon said.“ The corridor it serves, the St. Lawrence – Great Lakes corridor, represents an economic footprint equivalent to the world’ s third-largest economy. This depth of connectivity and market access constitutes a decisive competitive advantage for exporters.”

Gascon added that choosing the right investments is pivotal for the Port of Montreal to prevail as a strong link in the supply chain.

“ Our expansion project in Contrecœur is one of the best responses to US tariff threats, as it allows, among other things, the creation of nearly 4,000 jobs annually during construction and the use of Canadian steel,” she said.“ Moreover, if just 6 % of Canadian exports were redirected from the United States, the Port of Montreal would operate at full capacity. This makes the project urgent.”

Capacity + resilience = limited intermodal disruptions

Regardless of conditions, transportation and logistics providers

Mandated to enable trade through the Port of Vancouver— Canada’ s largest port and North America’ s most diversified port moving $ 350 billion in trade annually, connecting Canada with up to 170 countries.

The port authority holds the responsibility to manage Canada’ s trade assets in the port, which is central to its purpose of enabling Canada’ s trade by being reliable and innovative while protecting the environment.

The port’ s four container terminals move about half of Canada’ s total container trade each year( 3.5 million TEUs in 2024), including imports of household goods and specialty foods and exports of commodities such as grain and forestry products.

With extensive on-dock rail connections and direct rail access to key destinations throughout North America, the port’ s marine cargo terminals are supported by a well-established network of transload and warehouse facilities and roadways.

The port authority’ s key focus areas are optimizing port operations, strengthening supply chain resilience and building capacity to support Canada’ s trade.

With ship traffic and cargo volumes growing, the port authority is collaborating with industry and government to enhance the fluidity of vessel movements and the overall resilience of the maritime supply chain at the Port of Vancouver through several initiatives. In 2025, the port authority completed the port-wide implementation of a centralized scheduling system for commercial marine traffic, introduced a near-time arrival process to support more efficient and sustainable port calls and launched a new insights dashboard to provide greater visibility into cargo movements at the port.

Container trade on Canada’ s west coast is on a long-term growth trajectory and additional capacity will be needed to meet this growth. The port authority continues to make progress in advancing the Roberts Bank Terminal 2 Project— a large-scale marine container terminal. Once complete in the mid-2030s, the terminal will increase capacity by more than 30 % on Canada’ s west coast, enabling the trade of $ 100 billion in goods annually while providing businesses cost-competitive access to international markets and stronger supply chain reliability. n

38 Journal of Commerce | February 2, 2026 www. joc. com