The Greater Vancouver Gateway is defined by people, infrastructure and services that move international cargo and passengers to their destinations. Tens of thousands of people make the Gateway work. As the companies they work for buy services, indirect jobs are generated, and, as Gateway employees spend wages in their communities, 17,200 additional jobs are induced for a total employment impact of 139,000 jobs. By way of comparison, total Greater Vancouver employment was 1,076,000 in 2002.

In fact Gateway business has become the mainspring of Greater Vancouver’s economy. Today the Gateway moves 115 million tones of cargo and 16.9 million air passengers and is Canada’s Gateway to the Asia Pacific, the fastest growing economies in the world. The Region’s success is evidenced by significant population growth, by 2030 over three million people will call Greater Vancouver home. Population growth and the expansion of international trade and travel are increasing pressure on the Region’s road, transit, marine and rail networks. There are more cars, buses and trucks on the roads, and more trains on the railways today than ever before.

Average wages from Gateway employment are 37% higher than the BC average. In the export cargo sector of the Gateway’s business wages are 64% higher.

42% of the Gateway’s Gross Domestic Product accrues to governments in tax revenues either directly or indirectly. Gateway enterprises are some of the more significant tax payers in their communities. The Airport, for example, paid $680 million of taxes in 2005 to three levels of government.

The Gateway transportation system is essential to tourism and business travel. 16.9 million air passengers and nearly one million cruise ship passengers rely on the Gateway for access to their chosen destinations. Greater Vancouver is itself a tourism and travel destination. Over 2.6 million people from the U.S. and countries in the Asia Pacific and Europe visit the region each year. Whether they were traveling to and from the airport to the downtown hotels, the Burrard Inlet cruise ship terminals or destinations outside Vancouver, the Gateway was their point of entry. And as Vancouver/Whistler gear up for, and host, the 2010 Winter Games, hundreds of thousands of additional travelers will use the Gateway transportation system, generating between $2.0 and $4.2 billion incremental GDP.

The Gateway handles approximately $16 billion of Canada’s export commodities to world markets, the largest segment of which is sixty million tonnes of Western Canada’s bulk commodities. Transportation accounts for between 18% and 45% of the total cost of these export commodities in world markets. Exports currently account for one third of Canada’s GDP, and as Canada’s and British Columbia’s international trade expands, the Gateway’s importance as a facilitator of international trade will grow.