Tuesday, August 14, 2018

Port Authority operations found to be "efficient and effective" in Special Examination findings


A Report that is required as part of the Canada Marine Act has delivered findings that provide for a positive review of the workings of the Port of Prince Rupert as of July 31st.

The mandate from the CMA is to ensure for oversight on operations of port facilities and from the review three key guidelines are used for the review.

The examination of the port's operations was designed to ensure:

The assets of the Authority are safeguarded and controlled; 

The financial, human and physical resources of the Authority are managed economically and efficiently; and 

The operations of the Authority are carried out effectively.

As part of the process, the Special Examination of the port operations was conducted by Grant Thornton LLP from a period of January 1 to December 31st of 2017

From their overview, the Canadian business advisory firm found no significant deficiencies in the systems and practices that were examined during the one year review.

Five elements were selected for review by Grant Thornton, a snapshot of the scope of the review and what expectations they were looking for can be found below (click to enlarge):




Grant Thornton also offered up some background on their plan of review of the Port's operations and the focus that they had chosen to explore as part of the one year overview.

The plan also identified those systems and practices that we considered to be essential to providing the Authority with reasonable assurance with respect to its assets being safeguarded and controlled, its resources being managed economically and efficiently, and its operations being carried out effectively.

Other systems and practices of the Authority, although covered in the survey, were excluded from detailed examination because our analysis of their significance and risks associated with them indicated that, during the period under examination, they were not critical to providing the Authority with reasonable assurance as required by subsection 41 (1) of the CMA

The Port of Prince Rupert posted the Grant Thornton notes to its website, you can review the document here.

The Port Authority also gained some fairly impressive press yesterday from a major financial news service, with a Bloomberg Report highlighting the ongoing success for Port operations on the North Coast.

That despite the growing global trade war winds that are currently blowing in all directions , stoked by the America First agenda of the Trump Administration in Washington.

The Bloomberg piece from Natalie Obiko Pearson traces some of the history of the Port of Prince Rupert as well as how the Port has become a gateway that is growing in use and generating much in the way of interest from global shippers.

Key to the success for the Port is it's direct rail route into Chicago and beyond, a service operated by CN Rail that has become one of the major selling points for the railways container service across North America.



The review also provides for a cautionary note on expectations for the near future however, noting that as the Trump agenda on trade moves forward, a number of financial and trade observers believe that the American focus on trade will have some impact on volumes of shipments world wide.

The full Bloomberg article can be reviewed here.

The Bloomberg review was also featured by the Vancouver Sun and other Canadian newspapers on Monday, included in those reviews was a companion video to explore some of the themes, you can access it here.

For more items of interest related to the Port of Prince Rupert see our archive page here, background on the DP World container facility at Fairview can be reviewed here.

To return to the most recent blog posting of the day, click here.

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