Alliance chosen over amalgamation
Published Thursday August 21st, 2008
Feasibility A gateway council will co-ordinate, improve quality of shipping options: officials
SAINT JOHN - There has been much behind-the-scenes talk about the possibility of amalgamating ports in New Brunswick, but a federal official said Wednesday that he doesn't see the benefit of such a move to the success of an Atlantic gateway.
"Could similar benefits be arrived at through strategic alliances?" Tim Meisner, director general of marine policy at Transport Canada, asked during a panel presentation on the final day of a four-day conference of port authorities in Saint John.
Almost 100 leaders in the transport industry gathered at the Trade and Convention Centre for the 50th annual general meeting of the Association of Canadian Port Authorities. Major themes which emerged during the conference included the need to improve Canada's rail systems in order to move goods from ports to markets, the possible benefits to any future amalgamation of Atlantic Canadian ports and the importance of a regional co-operation in building a gateway system, which would bring more goods through the area.
The creation of an Atlantic Gateway would see eastern Canadian ports become central to shipping routes to and from European and Asian destinations.
While the federal government is 10 months into a two-year commitment to create an Atlantic Gateway, there are challenges ahead and there is doubt the gateway will be in place by the 2009 deadline.
Al Soppitt, president and chief executive officer of the Saint John Port Authority, spoke about a plan that is intended to help bring the gateway concept to reality. Just being formed - and in the middle of a membership drive to expand its board of directors - the Southern New Brunswick Gateway Council was created to "improve the competitiveness and efficiency of the transportation of goods through southern New Brunswick," Soppitt said.
The council was created from a failed suggestion a years ago that wanted to see the amalgamation under one board of all transportation companies in the province, said Soppitt.
"That just wasn't feasible," said Soppitt.
What was feasible, he said, was a gateway council that could work to co-ordinate and improve the quality of shipping options in the province.
The council will look at challenges to the creation of a bustling gateway, Soppitt said. Those challenges include the eligibility of marine and air infrastructure projects for federal gateway funding, creating cohesion between the Atlantic provinces, the consolidation of provincial and gateway priorities and linking the natural gateway initiative to one transportation and trade development position.
"We need to have a co-ordinated approach from the entire region, not just one particular area in isolation," said Soppitt.
Jim Frost, recently president of MariNova Consulting Ltd, now senior consultant with CPCS Transcom, an Ottawa-based transportation consultancy, said that the gateway concept "isn't exactly new" and dates back to 1840.
"What's really new is engagement on the part of the federal government on this issue," Frost said, adding that federal interest in the initiative is greater than it has been at any time since the 1930s.
Shipping gateways have been created in other parts of Canada but "the context in Atlantic Canada is completely different than on the West Coast. We are dealing with four provinces that have many ports and harbours and airports and little congestion," Frost said.
What we need to do in Atlantic Canada is look at transportation as an economic enabler, while building sustainability into the discussion, he said.
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