Send message to Author

Paper short abstract

By drawing from my fieldwork experience, this contribution aims to shed light on how the expansion of the port is shaping life in Prince Rupert, the expectations it generates, how people envision the future, and how economies of anticipation can counteract large-scale infrastructure development.

Paper long abstract

Located on Kaien Island, one of the northwestern isles of British Columbia, Prince Rupert is home to the deepest natural harbor on the west coast of North America. In addition, its strategic location offers the shortest shipping route from North America to Asia. The combination of these factors has played a major role in the development of the port in the last fifty years, with Prince Rupert’s dock currently being the third largest in Canada by cargo tonnage and containers

handled. Prince Rupert’s strategic location with connections to the Arctic and sub-Arctic, its proximity to Alaska, and long- term envisioning as a hub of global transport and exchange with Asia, evoke imaginaries of “Arctic Silk Roads” parallel

to those discussed in other chapters in this volume. Such imaginaries have been strengthened following the construction of the Fairview Terminal, the first dedicated intermodal container terminal in North America, operated by DP World. New hopes about development and economic growth have started to circulate among politicians, business owners, and locals in 2022, when DP World announced a two-year agreement with the Port Authority to conduct an assessment regarding the feasibility of building a second innovative container terminal. Economic actors reacted with growing excitement to the news; however, not everyone agrees that the relentless port development is the only available path. Whereas large- scale infrastructure development plans have been Prince Rupert’s defining element in recent decades, smaller and unexpected economies have emerged around the imagined development of Prince Rupert.