What we don\u2019t find is much MPO express train movement.<\/p>\n
Maybe that\u2019s because it has more passengers waiting to board.<\/p>\n
As the report\u2019s executive summary points out, \u201cthe MPO is managing the most complex coordinated federal approval exercise in Canadian history, with a team that is still hiring.\u201d<\/p>\n
When that hiring will stop is anyone\u2019s guess, but if the numbers included in the Macdonald-Laurier Institute\u2019s report on Canada\u2019s public sector hiring boom<\/a> are any indicator, the MPO hiring has just begun.<\/p>\n That would be on brand for the federal Liberals: rearrange cars to turn an economic express train into a civil service gravy train. Fast-track votes first; deliver on promises later \u2013 if ever.<\/p>\n The need for taxpayer transparency<\/p>\n What about an updated MPO express train arrival schedule?<\/p>\n No clarity there, according to Resource Works writer Don MacLachlan\u2019s MPO: Major Projects Obscuration?<\/a> analysis, which proposes that the MPO keep taxpayers regularly advised of the nation-building fast-track train\u2019s progress.<\/p>\n \u201cHow about the MPO posting online a monthly update of progress on projects?\u201d he suggests.<\/p>\n MacLachlan also wonders how the MPO\u2019s initial $213.8 million budget is being spent.<\/p>\n More government obscuration there.<\/p>\n The lumpenproletariat might be wondering, too, about projects that do not have MPO blessings.<\/p>\n The Second Narrows rail bridge chokepoint<\/p>\n Workaday transportation infrastructure chokepoints such as the Port of Vancouver\u2019s (PoV) Second Narrows rail bridge, for example.<\/p>\n The single-track CN (TSX:CNR) rail link between the North Shore and Metro Vancouver is a critical piece of PoV cargo movement infrastructure.<\/p>\n As CN points out, the North Shore alone moves more trade than any other Canadian port, and almost all of the cargo handled by North Shore terminals travels by rail over the bridge.<\/p>\n That rail traffic has increased significantly since the July 2020 completion of the North Shore\u2019s $600 million G3 grain terminal, which alone boosted the PoV\u2019s annual grain-handling capacity by eight million tonnes.<\/p>\n Marine traffic that transits the Second Narrows complicates the movement of North Shore bulk cargo because the bridge is regularly closed to rail traffic for long stretches to allow the fleet of oil tankers and other commercial ships being serviced by the PoV to move through the narrows.<\/p>\n When the vertical lift bridge malfunctions, as it did for four days at the end of February, that marine traffic flow stops.<\/p>\n A threat to the energy superpower brand<\/p>\n And that is bad for more than the PoV\u2019s already subpar efficiency and reliability reputation<\/a>.<\/p>\n It is also bad for Carney Canada\u2019s energy superpower brand.<\/p>\n A 57-year-old single-track rail bridge charged with carrying 43.7 million tonnes of cargo annually that is regularly sidelined for five to six-hour stretches to allow tanker traffic to navigate port waters won\u2019t cut it in the 21st-century trade-lane major leagues.<\/p>\n A North Shore-Metro Vancouver rail connection that eliminates cargo movement interruption complications for commercial shipping and adds a rapid transit rail link for North Shore commuters should be atop Canada\u2019s transportation project priority list.<\/p>\n It should not be left waiting with other critical infrastructure improvements for the arrival of Carney Canada\u2019s inert MPO express train.<\/p>\n This article originally appeared in The Substack Shipping News<\/a>. Timothy Renshaw can be reached at [email\u00a0protected]<\/a>.<\/p>\n Resource Works News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Has anyone seen Carney Canada\u2019s Major Projects Office (MPO) express train? We have scores of folk waiting at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7123,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[4134,4135,4136,111,4137,4138],"class_list":{"0":"post-7122","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mark-carney","8":"tag-canada-project-approvals","9":"tag-infrastructure-delays","10":"tag-major-projects-office","11":"tag-mark-carney","12":"tag-public-sector-efficiency","13":"tag-transportation-bottlenecks"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7122\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-4-1024x436.jpeg\")
The Port of Vancouver and the rest of the Asia-Pacific Gateway need a replacement now for the Second Narrows rail bridge | CNR<\/p>\n