The Vancouver Fraser Port Authority and its tenant GCT Global Container Terminals agreed to take a year to negotiate whether GCT can build and operate the port’s massive Roberts Bank Terminal 2 expansion. The parties credited the federal Major Projects Office with helping them reach the agreement. GCT had been pushing an expansion of its own nearby terminal but said it would withdraw its request to the MPO for that expansion to be treated as a national priority project. (The Logic)

Talking point: GCT is one of two container terminal operators at Vancouver’s port; one of the authority’s arguments for a new terminal, besides needing more capacity, has been that a third operator would benefit shippers. Having competing expansion efforts, however, rather than another competing terminal, has bogged GCT and the port authority down in court. GCT is owned by the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, British Columbia Investment Management Corporation and Australia’s IFM Investors.