Esquimalt Graving Dock

Backgrounder

The Esquimalt Graving Dock is the only “open access” multi-user facility on the west coast of the Americas, and is located at the south end of Vancouver Island at Esquimalt Harbour, in the Greater Victoria region. The term “open access” describes a facility that provides common services (on a fee-for-service basis) and multi-user access to dry dock infrastructure for a variety of private sector companies. It is directly accessible from the Strait of Juan de Fuca, which is the shipping channel to southern British Columbia and Puget Sound in the United States.

The Esquimalt Graving Dock is the largest deep-sea shipbuilding and repair facility on Canada’s Pacific Coast. It represents 60% of Canada’s Pacific Coast dry dock capacity and is one of only two West Coast dry docks with the capacity to accommodate Panamax-sized vessels (the largest deep-sea vessels that can pass through the Panama Canal), including modern cruise ships. Its cranes and berth facilities are large enough to service 92% of the world’s bulk carrier ships and 100% of the world’s general cargo ships.

The dock measures 357 metres by 38 metres. The north landing jetty is 305 metres long and has a depth of 10 metres of water at low tide.

The facility supports the provision of shipbuilding and repair services to a wide range of coastal and ocean-going vessels, such as commercial vessels, the British Columbia ferry fleet, cruise ships and the federal fleet. Its principal stakeholders are the vessel owners that rely on the facility for repair, maintenance and refit. This includes the Royal Canadian Navy, the Canadian Coast Guard and BC Ferries, as well as a number of foreign and private vessel owners (including cruise ship lines) that regularly use the facility.

The total economic impact of the Esquimalt Graving Dock on British Columbia’s economy is estimated at $183 million. It supports an estimated 1,300 jobs in the Greater Victoria region.

As per the 1871 Treaty of Union with British Columbia, the Government of Canada was required to construct a graving dock in the area. (“Graving” means to scrape off barnacles and material from the hull of a ship.) A smaller dock was initially built (now in the HMC Dockyard Esquimalt), with the Esquimalt Graving Dock replacing it in 1927.

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