The federal and provincial governments have combined on an investment of over $136 million to upgrade and modernize Port Saint John’s Westside terminals.
The governments will contribute $68.3 million each, federal fisheries minister Dominic LeBlanc and Premier Brian Gallant announced Tuesday.
READ MORE: Port of Saint John still waiting for federal funding to be signed, sealed and delivered
The modernization project is estimated at $205 million — the remaining $69 million will come from the port itself.
“The port will aggressively begin a construction schedule and the cost they’re incurring now can be charged against this federal-provincial agreement to support the port,” LeBlanc said.
Construction is expected to begin at the start of 2017 and will see the consolidation of the Rodney and Navy Island terminals, allowing the port to accommodate larger vessels.
New operational systems will be installed as well.
“One of the key parts of allowing Canadian businesses to compete globally is to have state of the art global infrastructure that allows us to get Canadian products to global markets,” LeBlanc said.
Gallant said the investment is key to ensuring New Brunswick businesses can export and import competitively, adding that he believes benefits will be seen on a much faster timeline.
“It is going to help create jobs in the short term — 2,000 jobs within seven years on construction alone,” Gallant said.
“It’s going to help businesses and industries that already use the port to import and export to continue to compete internationally and it’s also going to help to ensure that we’re able to help important projects like the energy east pipeline, it’s going to ensure that we can also increase tourism here in the region and the province.”
READ MORE: Brad Wall, Brian Gallant discuss proposed Energy East pipeline benefits
Port Saint John CEO Jim Quinn says securing funding has been a long process but the end result was worth the effort.
“It’s the culmination of five years of work by an awful lot of dedicated people so it’s a feeling of great relief but also of the next steps to come,” he said.
“I’m really, 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 so we’re all excited.”
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