BCBusInEss.CA August 2014 BCBusiness 39
Lower Mainland to a nearby destination.
But even without port-related activity,
Vancouver is a critical hub for millions of
products passing through from Whistler
to Kamloops or from Cranbrook to Van-
couver Island. While Williams is weav-
ing his way through Surrey's industrial
zone, for instance, a large pile of stuff
at the Argus warehouse is waiting to go
to the Interior: a moulded plastic rain-
catcher on its way to a gas bar in Fort
Nelson, an empty drum being delivered
to the City of Vernon, Harley Davidson
parts off to Kelowna.
And then there are changes to the
very nature of business that are put-
ting more trucks on the road. Those
local retailers who still operate store-
fronts are choosing to limit the amount
of expensive space they rent in places
like Vancouver and Surrey; rather than
having a lot of stock delivered at once
and stored on site, they get only small
amounts brought to their outlets as
needed. This morning, Williams deliv-
ered a single television to the Visions on
King George Boulevard, a single pallet of
poly bags and plastic film to Cosmeceuti-
cal Research on 129th Avenue, a small
load of paint to the Dulux store on Main
near Broadway. And for those who oper-
ate in the new universe of online sales,
there's no retail outlet at all—just a truck
somewhere with our stuff in it, being
deployed from a distribution warehouse
on the edge of the region.
So all kinds of people, from those dis-
patching the trucks to the people who
have a province-wide view, see rapid
transit in the Lower Mainland as a key
part of the way the provincial economy
physically operates. "Any vehicle off
the road is going to help us," says Derek
Warnock, the operations manager for
Phoenix Truck and Crane in Vancouver,
whose company, similar to Argus, deliv-
ers stuff, some of it from B.C.'s Interior,
all over the region. At the Business Coun-
cil of B.C., chief economist Ken Peacock
takes a broader perspective. "The direct
benefit [of good Lower Mainland transit]
for someone living in Prince George is
negligible. But having less congestion
does benefit other parts of the province.
The resources come from the north, but
having great infrastructure and a good
transit system is critical to B.C."
RIPPLE EFFECT
Proponents of a Broadway
subway line say it would
benefit all of B.C.—not just
Vancouver.
