As the federal agency responsible for the stewardship of the lands and waters that make up the Port of Vancouver, the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority has an exceptionally vast mandate: enabling Canada’s trade through the port, while protecting the environment and considering local communities.
Encompassing over 16,000 hectares of water and over 1,500 hectares of land, the Port of Vancouver borders 16 municipalities and intersects the traditional territories and treaty lands of several Coast Salish First Nations. As the country’s gateway to over 170 trading economies around the world, the port authority handles $1 of every $3 of Canada’s trade in goods outside of North America.
This substantial purview comes with a corresponding responsibility—with such large portions of the Lower Mainland’s population affected by goods movement, , projects, and developments going through the Port of Vancouver, public engagement is an absolute must.
The port authority and Civil Space teamed up to host the first round of engagement for the Pitt Meadows Road and Rail Improvements Project, which aims to separate two of the busiest road and rail crossings in the Lower Mainland, both of which are blocked each day by moving trains for an average of one hour and 45 minutes.
The port authority team chose Civil Space to be their engagement platform with the goal of increasing their reach and providing meaningful opportunities to gather feedback from the community of Pitt Meadows to inform the project. As with all projects, the port authority believes the outcomes are always better when the community has a say in projects that will affect them