Federal Budget Allocates $2.4B for Pacific Gateway Infrastructure Upgrades

The federal government's spring budget earmarks $2.4 billion over six years for Pacific Gateway infrastructure, including a major expansion of the Port of Vancouver and electrification of the Trans-Mountain rail corridor.

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland framed the spending as a direct response to ongoing US tariff uncertainty, arguing that diversifying Canadian trade routes through Pacific ports is a national security priority as much as an economic one.

The Port of Vancouver, already North America's third-largest by tonnage, will receive $890 million to expand its Roberts Bank Terminal 2 facility and develop a new dedicated liquefied natural gas export berth at Squamish.

"Canada cannot continue to have 70 percent of its trade flow through a single partner," Freeland told the House of Commons. "These investments are about building resilience — trade resilience, economic resilience, strategic resilience."

BC Premier David Eby welcomed the investment but said the province would be pushing Ottawa for faster environmental review timelines, noting that the Roberts Bank expansion has been in assessment for over a decade.