The Canadian government is investing $25 million in new
terminal infrastructure at the Port of Trois-Rivières, a small bulk and
breakbulk port midway between Montreal and Quebec City on the St. Lawrence
Seaway.
The investment will support the construction of a 25-acre
multipurpose terminal to the west of the port's existing infrastructure. The
new development - Terminal 21 - will be used for the transhipment of dry bulk,
liquid bulk and general cargo. The project includes the construction of a wharf
and road and rail accesss roads, as well as storage space. It will add 2,300
linear feet of wharf berthing space, and it is expected to increase the port's
throughput capacity by 50 percent.
The government funding package will cover about a quarter of
the $100 million total cost for the Terminal 21 project.
"[This] announcement comes in a context where we need
to create the conditions for economic recovery. Terminal 21 will increase port
traffic by 1.5 million metric tons with an estimated value of [$2 billion]. But
a wharf, a terminal, is more than just an infrastructure. It represents above
all several generations of employed men and women who will succeed one another.
This is the largest expansion phase that the Port will experience in nearly one
hundred years and is the foundation for its future development,” said Gaétan
Boivin, President and CEO of the Port of Trois-Rivières.
When it is completed in late 2023, its operation will result
in the creation of 425 direct and indirect jobs and annual economic activity of
$27 million. The construction phase will contribute to the creation of 630 jobs
and activity of $75 million.
The new economic activity in Canada's most densely-populated
trade corridor will benefit the post-coronavirus recovery. Quebec lost about
820,000 jobs during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic, and while it has
since regained about 85 percent of the decline, its unemployment rate still
remains higher than last year at about 7.5 percent.