Marine Atlantic investing in N.L.

Marine Atlantic has announced its intention to spend millions of dollars in Port aux Basques to construct a new administration facility.

Currently the Crown corporation’s administrative group is located in three separate buildings. Spokesman Darrell Mercer says that is simply no longer efficient for the roughly 100 administrative staff working in Port aux Basques.

“We’ve got 10 Marine Dr., we’ve got the Lomond building and we’ve also got employees from administration at the terminal building,” said Mercer.

Mercer said the corporation considered renovating the Marine Drive location to help deal with its space issues, but the aging infrastructure was a concern.

“After looking at all the information that we collected, we decided that a new build would be the best path forward.”

Earlier in the summer Marine Atlantic reached out to local landowners to determine suitable site availability in the area and received 20 submissions.

As of Oct. 31, Marine Atlantic was still bringing together a team to oversee the entire project.

“That’s going to be comprised of local employees who work in Port aux Basques,” said Mercer. “They’re going to help guide this process and through that we’re going to have consultation with employees … going to include them in the process.”

Currently Marine Atlantic is wading through site submissions. Part of that evaluation process will consider criteria beyond location, such as services, space and environmental considerations.

“We’re in the very early stages of this process,” said Mercer, who says locals will soon see some boots on the ground as the site prospects are narrowed down.

Although the time frame, overall cost, location, design and details of the project are still unknown, constructing a new building translates to a multi-million-dollar investment in the town by Marine Atlantic.

“We’re pretty excited about the opportunity this is going to bring,” said Mercer.