FEDERAL GOVERNMENT MAKES MAJOR INVESTMENT IN THE PORT OF MONTREAL

March 2012

The Honourable Denis Lebel, Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities, announced that the federal government will invest $15.1 million in a project to optimize the container handling areas at the Port of Montreal.

The project has two phases. The first aims to modernize the Maisonneuve Sector through a fully optimized terminal, which will add approximately 50,000 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) to its capacity thanks to the relocation of various buildings. This will bring the terminal’s capacity to 520,000 TEUs.

The second phase consists of turning a bulk area into a container area in the Viau Sector. This phase will include the demolition of buildings, preparing the space and work on the adjacent railway track. The new space will be able to accommodate 150,000 containers.

“I am especially pleased by the Government of Canada’s support of our efforts to increase our container handling capacity. It is proof of the leading role the Port of Montreal plays in the Ontario-Quebec corridor, through which two-thirds of Canada’s international trade transits,” stated Sylvie Vachon, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Montreal Port Authority.

Once the project is completed at the end of March 2014, the total container handling capacity at the Port of Montreal will have risen to 1.8 million TEUs, a 12.5% increase.

The estimated total project cost is $39.25 million.

Minister Lebel also announced a $500,000 financial participation in a project aiming at optimizing navigation in the St. Lawrence Channel from Quebec City to Montreal. Its purpose is to implement technology that will increase the loading capacity of vessels by maximizing use of the water column in this channel.

This project will enable optimal loading of vessels that could increase container services traffic by more than 500,000 tonnes in Montreal.