Port Saint John Secures $68 Million In Federal Funding
SAINT JOHN – Port Saint John has officially secured the funding to go ahead with its much anticipated modernization project.
On Tuesday the federal government announced it would officially be contributing $68.3 million to the project. The initial announcement of the funding was made last year by the former Conservative government before the federal election, however it was not secured at the time. The Trudeau government says after a meeting of the federal treasury board last month, it now is.
“What we’re announcing today is the government of Canada has by law, formally committed $68 million to this project,” said Dominic LeBlanc, Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard. “The Port can now go out and begin to incur costs and charge them against this announcement and that was something that was absolutely not true a year ago.”
Last year the government of New Brunswick announced it was also contributing 68.3 million, making the total government contribution to the project $136 million.
The total cost of the modernization project is estimated around $205 million. It involves major capital work at the Port’s West Side cargo handling piers and facilities, and deepening of the main channel.
Port Saint John CEO Jim Quinn said he is anxious to get the project underway.
“It’s absolutely terrific. It’s a combination of five years of work by an awful lot of dedicated people, so it’s a feeling of great relief but a feeling of anticipation of the next steps to come,” Quinn said. “I’m really anxious to get things going and I think the people of Saint John are going to see an awful lot of activity on our waterfront.”
Quinn said the next step is to do the preparatory work for the project, such as engineering work and the Request For Proposals for partners to help with detailed design. He says actual construction will begin in 2017 and will create between 1,400 to 2, 200 direct and indirect jobs.
“We’re really excited because this is a massive moment in our history as a port and it allows us to continue to build that business . . . and there’s further announcements to be made in the not so distant future which is going to be yet again very exciting for our city and our province,” he said.
LeBlanc, who is also the MP for the New Brunswick riding of Beauséjour, says the port will plays an important role in growing New Brunswick economy.
“New Brunswick’s economy is extremely dependent on exports. We are the most the dependent province in terms of of GDP, the size of our economy, on exports. We have a world class port here in Saint John that has huge potential to grow it’s business,” LeBlanc said. “Particularly with free trade agreements like the one with Europe that we hope will quickly come into effect, there’s a real opportunity to make Saint John and New Brunswick one of the global hubs in international trade. But to do that, governments have to invest in the infrastructure.”
Though exports are important, LeBlanc told Huddle research and innovation also plays a huge role in New Brunswick’s economic future. However, it’s an aspect that’s currently underfunded.
“There’s no doubt that the New Brunswick economy, like the Canadian economy in general, needs significant increases in research and innovation funding,” LeBlanc said. “In Atlantic Canada we’re chronically underfunded from a research and innovation perspective.”
LeBlanc said in the coming weeks the government expects to announce a significant investment in modernizing Canada’s university and college infrastructure research infrastructure. In its April budget, federal government announced a $2 billion fund for this purpose. LeBlanc says this will hopefully lead to more New Brunswick post-secondary institutions commercializing research and creating well-paying jobs.
“It’s being finalized now. We’re working on finalizing the New Brunswick portion of it and it will be tens of millions of dollars for colleges and universities in their research infrastructure. . . in the next few weeks I’m hoping to announce a number of these investments which will allow universities and colleges in New Brunswick to compete globally for other research investments,” LeBlanc said. “Because if we’re able to improve scientific labs and other research infrastructure, then colleges and universities can compete in this peer reviewed research climate to go and attract more business.”