Port of Vancouver cancels permit for coal export terminal

The port authority says the project proposed by Fraser Surrey Docks failed to show substantial progress on construction had been made by Nov. 30, one of 83 conditions.    The Port of Vancouver canceled a permit Jan. 30 for a planned $15-million thermal coal export terminal for Fraser Surrey Docks after the project failed to meet one of its 83 conditions.
   The project, which had a permit issued in November 2015 that amended a permit from the previous year, failed to show substantial progress on construction had been made by Nov. 30, 2018, according to the port authority.
  “We take our role as a permitting authority very seriously,” said Vancouver Port Authority spokesperson Danielle Jang in a statement emailed Monday. “Since this proponent did not satisfactorily meet the provisions of condition 81 of the permit, we cancelled the permit.”  
   Jeff Scott, president and CEO of Fraser Surrey Docks, said his understanding was the facility had to be completed by November 2020, according to CBC News.
    The terminal, located on the Fraser River, first applied in 2012 for a permit to build a rail to barge bulk coal handing system. The facility was originally proposed as a transfer station to load thermal coal from rail cars from the United States onto barges, which would be transported to Texada Island — located in British Columbia’s Straight of Georgia — to be loaded onto vessels and shipped to Asia.
   A permit for that plan was issued in 2014, but the amended permit the following year allowed for direct coal transfer onto oceangoing ships in the Fraser River.
   The planned facility would have handled for than 4 million tons of coal annually, according to Global News Canada, and create 25 direct and 25 indirect full-time jobs.