Gateway mission to West Canada

In the last week of January, a dedicated mission of Dutch companies visited West Canada to exchange knowledge and explore business opportunities in the Canadian Pacific Gateway strategy. The highly interactive program was organized by the Dutch Consulate General in British Colombia and the Netherlands Trade Office in Alberta and represented a return visit from the earlier Canadian delegation to Rotterdam in June as co-organized by Dinalog for the Netherlands Enterprise Agency.

West Canada develops into the ‘Pacific Gateway’ of North America for both export of Canadian agricultural, energy and raw materials to Asia and import of Asian half and end products to the US and Canada. This is supported by large expansions and investments in the ports of Vancouver and Prince Rupert and new developments of inland container terminals. The railway companies Canadian National Railway (CN) and Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) invest heavily to accommodate the growing container flows and transshipment into the hinterland.

Besides Dinalog, the Dutch companies Husa Transportation, IMS and Stigconsult were represented, added with the Dutch representatives of Smit/Boskalis, Van Oord, Mammoet and Klein Systems Group. In Calgary, the mission discussed logistics gateway strategies in a roundtable with triple helix representation of Alberta as organized by the Van Horne Institute and visited the intermodal terminals of CN and CP as well as the Calgary airport.

In Vancouver, the mission attended the first Cargo Logistics Canada Conference & Expo, where the whole Canadian industry was represented. The dedicated mission programme included meetings with Shell – who is preparing a large LNG facility investment in Kitimat -, Prince Rupert Authority, and British Colombia Transportation & Infrastructure Minister Todd Stone. The Dutch and Canadian representatives presented their perspectives on challenges in port-hinterland strategies to a large audience in a workshop organized by WESTAC. The week concluded with visits to Port Metro Vancouver and the Robert Banks Delta Terminal.

The companies involved in the mission made very useful contacts and follow-up agreements.

For more information: Liesbeth Staps, International Liaison Officer, staps@dinalog.nl.