Quebec eyeing future as prime shipping hub
MONTREAL • Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard officially launched the Liberal’s Maritime Strategy on Monday, presenting a blueprint for an estimated $9 billion in investments over the next 15 years to develop industry and commerce in the province along the St. Lawrence River to where it meets the Atlantic Ocean.
Couillard says the government plans to invest $5 billion, while he expects the remaining $4 billion will come from the private sector.
“We know from past experience from similar examples around the world that when the government commits funding at the level that we’re going to commit ourselves to, the leverage effect is almost automatic,” said Couillard at a news conference in Montreal’s Old Port on the Alexandra Pier, which will receive a $20-million restoration as a cruise ship passenger terminal.
“To do business and make a profit, that’s a fantastic opportunity and I know that our private sector is going to take advantage of this.”
Though Couillard said that he could not guarantee the level of investments from the private sector, he did say that he believed the $4 billion estimate to be “too conservative.”
He says the project should eventually create 30,000 jobs in maritime-related industries, such as shipping, fisheries, tourism, logistics, scientific research, and the environmental sector.
In its 2015-2016 budget presented in March, the Quebec Liberals have so far announced it would contribute $1.5 billion over the next five years.
These investments will include the fishing and tourism sector, though Couillard says the focus will be on “logistical hubs” that will ship and receive sea cargo, as well as distribute across northeastern Canada and the U.S. through rail, road and maritime transport.
So far, one of these hubs is planned for the Montreal offisland suburb of Vaudreuil-Soulanges, with another downstream the St. Lawrence in Contrecoeur.
The government has slated $200 million in equity participation on logistical hub projects over the next five years, along with $100 million for developing related infrastructure.
The Fonds de solidarité FTQ, the development capital fund for Quebec’s largest labour body, says it will invest at least $100 million in companies interested in participating in the projects.
“The St. Lawrence is an exceptional trade corridor that opens the doors of the world to businesses in Quebec,” said CEO of the Fonds de solidarité FTQ Gaétan Morin.
Morin says the Fond would use its long-standing partnerships with companies that include Quebec’s top two road carriers, TransForce and Transport Groupe Robert Inc., to invest in distribution networks.
Couillard says the CETA free trade agreement currently being negotiated between Canada and the European Union will create more activity in Quebec ports over the coming years.
He says the expansion of the Panama Canal expected to open to commercial traffic in April 2016 will also increase shipping on North America’s east coast.
“Our job is to tell people what an opportunity Montreal is in terms of access to the heart of North America and that it can accommodate even large ships,” said Couillard.
Couillard says he hopes the Maritime Strategy will make Quebec’s ports of entries more competitive than other international hubs such as Boston and New York.
“The maritime transport sector is extremely competitive and extremely profitable,” he said.
Improving maritime transport was one of Couillard’s campaign promises in the 2014 provincial elections when the Liberals had counted on a lower investment of $3 billion or $4 billion in public and private investment.
Parti Québécois opposition spokeswoman on transport, Martine Ouellet, says that although the Liberals are toting this project as the first of its kind in the province, the PQ had proposed its own plan for the St. Lawrence in 2001.
She also says that there have actually been job losses in the maritime sector since the Liberals took power in April 2014.
“They are announcing billions in investment and thousands of jobs, but for the moment, it’s clear there is nothing concrete,” said Ouellet.
The Maritime Strategy also aims to improve environmental protection, with a prevention and intervention centre planned in the Îles-de-la-Madeleine in case of a hazardousmaterial spill in the river.
Ten per cent of the maritime territory would also become protected areas by 2020. Environmental group CPAWS Quebec says that currently less than one per cent of the province’s marine environment is protected, and that in 2011 the government had promised this 10 per cent target would met by 2015.
“The Maritime Strategy published today offers no guarantee that the objectives will be achieved,” wrote CPAWS Quebec executive director Patrick Nadeau in a news release.
The Liberals originally planned the Maritime Strategy launch on June 2, but delayed the event following the death of former Quebec sovereigntist premier Jacques Parizeau the evening before.