Ten times more shipping cargo will be able to come through Nanaimo when DP World completes its second and third phases of expansion of its Duke Point facility. 

Official groundbreaking for the project was hosted at DP World鈥檚 terminal on Jackson Road on Friday, April 4, with a blessing, a ceremonial sod turning, and speeches from Snuneymuxw First Nation, Nanaimo Port Authority, City of Nanaimo and DP World representatives.

Joel Werner, chief operating officer for DP World Canada, said the project will stretch the length of the Duke Point berth to 325 metres from 182 metres. 

鈥淭his will enable us to berth 300-metre-long deep sea vessels,鈥� he said. 鈥淎side from that, we鈥檙e increasing the size of the container yard, adding the ability to handle refrigerated containers, replacing the existing diesel-powered crane 鈥� with two modern electric cranes and providing a number of other technology upgrades.鈥�

Duke Point is a gateway from Island exporters to global markets and for global market importers to Nanaimo and the rest of the Island. Goods coming to Vancouver Island are brought through several Island port facilities, but the expansion will greatly increase the terminal鈥檚 current container throughput.

鈥淲e will have a capacity to handle up to 280,000 containers per year,鈥� Werner said. 鈥淩ight now we鈥檙e handling 10,000 to 20,000 containers per year, so it鈥檚 a 10 times increase in the cargo handling capacity of Duke Point.鈥�

Werner said short-sea shipping 鈥� between the Island and B.C. mainland ports 鈥� is still the core of operations for Duke Point, but the expansion adds capacity for mainland operations by providing berthing space for large deep-draft ships up to 300 metres in length with up to 1,000-container cargo capacity "capable of participating in the global trade network.鈥� Duke Point is one of the deepest natural berthing sites in North America, he said.

Donna Hais, Port of Nanaimo board chairperson, said the project comes at a time when demand for shipping capacity is rising. 

鈥淎 huge amount of things are actually changing in this market,鈥� Hais said. 鈥淧opulation growth, for one, on Vancouver Island. Central Vancouver Island鈥檚 the fifth-fastest-growing centre in Canada, so we have a huge amount more people moving here, living here. More people to feed and take care of.鈥�

Hais noted the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020 in the middle of planning and negotiations for the project, and "drastically changed" port business. She said an advantage to the expansion at DP world is the "redundancy" it creates for shipping. 

鈥淢aybe you remember a few years ago, the climate change incident that happened over on the Lower Mainland where ports had to shut down because of massive flooding. Nanaimo is an option to create resiliency in supply chains that didn鈥檛 exist before and so we鈥檝e been able to bring that to market,鈥� she said.

She added that tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump have sparked a huge opportunity for creating strategic relationships with other trading partners and the Port of Nanaimo is investing in that. 

Snuneymuxw Chief Mike Wyse said he hopes the terminal expansion will bring growth to the local economy and the entire mid Island region. The Port of Nanaimo controls, administers and manages the harbour waters and Nanaimo foreshore in a tripartite agreement with the City of Nanaimo and Snuneymuxw First Nation to ensure the First Nation鈥檚 involvement in the port鈥檚 economic activities. 

Wyse said the First Nation has supported the port expansion "right from the get-go" and has been a part of lengthy discussions in reaching this stage. 

鈥淚 think there鈥檚 going to be opportunities moving forward on behalf of our economic development opportunities and our team being involved in the reconstruction and the construction, so we鈥檙e looking at that right now,鈥� he said.

The construction cost for the next phase of the project is $110 million, raised through private and public investments that include $46.5 million from the federal government鈥檚 national trade corridors fund and $15 million from the B.C. government鈥檚 regional port enhancement program, a component of the province鈥檚 B.C. economic recovery plan. 

Construction is scheduled to start almost immediately and is expected to take 18-24 months.