Pathways to immigrant employment in the port-logistics sector

The port-logistics sector consists of a network of activities that begin at the waterfront and extend to suburban distribution centres. In the process, jobs are created in traditional transportation industries, such as stevedoring, trucking, warehousing, forwarding and brokerage, as well as in information technology-rich activities from data entry to logistics planning. Since the late 1980s, British Columbia (BC)'s Lower Mainland port-logistics industry has undergone rapid growth and profound transformation (Hall and Clarke 2010). Vancouver has long been a major port for the export of commodities and still is, but since the early 1990s, container imports and exports have grown rapidly. Imports of manufactured goods are increasingly transloaded from marine into domestic containers in Vancouver-area warehouses for further distribution across North America. Some of the resulting empty marine containers are filled with raw materials for export. Between 1990 and 2005 Vancouver's container throughput grew by 458%: more than double the rate for all North American Pacific coast ports. This further consolidated Vancouver's position as Canada's most important (container) port.