PORTSECURE 2010
24/7 information hub will integrate key players
within one location
By MARK WILSON
July 5, 2010
Canada’s premier port is upping its security game, moving to an integrated around-the-clock information hub that can serve as an emergency operations centre in the event of a major incident.
Details of the latest initiative by Port Metro Vancouver were given to a Canadian port and maritime security conference in Vancouver on May 27 by PMV president and CEO Robin Silvester.
Port Metro Vancouver was a key player in the successful security arrangements for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver which lasted 17 days and sprawled more than 157 kilometres from the U.S. border to Whistler Resort. And the bill was less than the cost to Canadian taxpayers of hosting the G8 and G20 summits in Ontario in June, where policing and related costs came to $2 million per minute of meeting time.
Mr. Silvester, speaking at PortSecure 2010, told the national gathering that Port Metro Vancouver is to remake an existing operations centre to provide the integrated, around-the-clock information hub. It will receive real-time operational data and live feeds from its array of closed-circuit television and infra-red surveillance cameras, connect with perimeter motion sensors and alarms, and link with the monitoring and reporting systems of partners.
“This hub will act as a centre for integrating key port stakeholders, terminal operators, regulatory agencies and traffic for marine/road/and rail, all within one location,” Mr. Silvester said. “It will serve as the emergency operations centre for the port in the event of an incident.”
And an incident in a West Coast context could include an earthquake as well as an explosion, fire, collision, sinking, bridge collapse or other disaster.
Half the cost of the initiative will be met from the federal government’s infrastructure stimulus fund. Mr. Silvester did not put a price tag on the enhancement.
Port Metro Vancouver is reviewing how video from its more than 200 cameras is stored. “We’re even beginning to share certain cameras with individual terminals – we can use theirs, and they can use some of ours – to maximize camera usage and take advantage of broader jurisdictional coverage,” he said.
A recent acquisition is technology that triggers alarms and cameras if there is an attempted penetration of perimeter security.
“Some of this new technology was funded through the federal government’s $115-million security contribution program, of which port authorities received $80 million,” Mr. Silvester said. “With the Association of Canadian Port Authorities taking the lead, we are now looking at making the case for a possible second round of funding for that program.”
After describing Vancouver as a North American leader in rolling out new port security techniques, he listed some of its innovations.
Port Metro Vancouver was an early adopter of card access to secure areas and currently 39,000 such cards are in use. The port was also ahead of the pack in introducing low-level gamma radiation screening of cargo and it has 100-per-cent checking of passengers and baggage at its two cruise ship terminals.
Mr. Silvester said the port’s comprehensive security measures were tested during the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver. They met the heavy demands placed on them in a host city with key sites close to or directly on tidewater, without disruption to ship arrivals or cargo flows
Contributing to the port’s Olympian performance this year was an Internet-based application, developed in-house, that gives a real-time record of operational activity. “We call it the Operational Toolkit, or OTK,” Mr. Silvester said. “Because the port’s OTK acts as a central repository, we are able to pass critical information on trucking, rail activity, marine operations and incident management to our regulatory partners, which in turn helps everyone involved to enhance port security and increase supply chain efficiency.
“During the Olympic Games, many of our regulatory partners gave sparkling reviews for the OTK’s functionality and usefulness, calling it one of the best systems of its kind.”
Curtis Cloutier, senior manager of land operations with Port Metro Vancouver, told the conference of a development to provide two separate sites for the inspection of targeted containers received at terminals on the inner harbour and 35 kilometres to the south of it at Deltaport.
Currently, all containers needing physical inspection have to be trucked from the terminals to a single site in Vancouver’s neighbouring municipality of Burnaby, and then retrieved. As storage space is limited and bottlenecks can occur, some containers make the round trip twice when they cannot be seen on their first visit.
Mr. Cloutier said opening two inspection sites, one to serve inner harbour facilities and the other at Deltaport, will reduce truck hauls and yield both cost savings and a green dividend.
He said it is likely that both of the proposed sites will be within existing security perimeters. When asked about cost, he answered: “It will be in the tens of millions.”
He said the cost recovery model favoured by the marine community is that the shippers of containers selected for inspection meet the costs incurred, rather than placing the expense on all shippers through a general levy.
The current inspection facility was opened in the 1980s at an off-dock sufferance warehouse. It is incapable of meeting projected inspection totals in a port where container throughput is forecast to grow to 6.6 million TEUs (20-foot equivalent units) by 2030 and climb further to eight million TEUs by 2040.
The two proposed integrated marine security enforcement facilities will be multi-agency sites, though the primary user will be the Canada Border Services Agency, which seeks to inspect two per cent of all containers. Other players using the examination sites will include local police forces, the RCMP, Health Canada and Transport Canada. A private sector operator for the new facilities is being sought through public tender.