McKay's concerns not a worry for Fairview

Already ahead of the security curve, the Fairview Container Terminal is considered one of the state of the art gateways to trade for Canada's transportation system.

So while Defence Minister Peter McKay was expressing concerns about the weak links in Canada's infrastructure when it comes to security and ports, the Fairview Port was busy going about its work with the latest machinery and protocols already in place.

The Daily News featured the background on the story as their front page item in Friday's paper.

'MINISTER'S CONTAINER FEARS NOT AN ISSUE ON NORTH COAST'
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Friday, November 30, 2007
Pages one and three


While Defence Minister Peter MacKay might be losing sleep over the prospect of a 'dirty bomb' slipping through a Canadian container port, officials at Canada's newest container terminal are getting their ZZZs.

That is because every single container that is moved through the newly opened Fairview Terminal is already being scanned through state-of-the-art radiation portals.

"We are operating under the new paradigm already," said Shawn Stevenson, vice president of business development and marketing at the Prince Rupert Port Authority.

"We've got 100 per cent screening which is really what the rest of the industry is trying to get to."

At an Ottawa conference for transportation security experts on Wednesday, the defence minister raised the spectre of radicals detonating a crude radioactive dispersal device - a so-called dirty bomb - or even a conventional nuclear bomb, after smuggling it in one of the millions of cargo containers arriving annually on foreign ships.

"The greatest threat to North America right now is on the water," MacKay told the audience.
"This is an area where, God forbid, if someone with ill intent decided to send a dirty bomb or some kind of a nuclear device into our country, this is an area where we are vulnerable.

"With the number of movements of containers coming into this country today, this is an area we have to be completely and extremely vigilant and rigorous in terms of security."

The conference comes as B.C.'s Deltaport is in the midst of a 90-day trial of radiation portals, designed to scan every container to prevent the entry of a dirty bomb. The portals are yet to go live. Similar trials are also underway at ports across the country.

However, when Maher Terminals began operating the $180-million Fairview Container Terminal this October, such portals were already part of the plan.

"This is the first terminal that has been built post 9/11 in the new security regime," said Stevenson.

"We are already operating at a much higher standard than any other port in North America."
The portals are able to detect minute quantities of radiation and lead within unopened containers.

In addition to scanning 100 per cent of containers through the radiation portals, the Canadian Border Services Agency also operates a VACIS x-ray machine that gives operators a more detailed view of the contents of targetted containers.

Also, because many of the containers are moving to the United States and there is a sensitivity to threats in that country, the containers undergo a second VACIS scanning when they cross the border.

"Containers moving through Prince Rupert to Chicago or Memphis are going through a much more rigorous security system than containers going to the same destinations from other ports," Stevenson said.

By 2012, the U.S. wants all of the estimated seven-million cargo containers arriving on its shores annually to be scanned for hidden nuclear cargo, up from less than one per cent today.