New highway allows region to d dream big
Area sells itself as strategic hub for industry, logistics
Driving through Coteau-du-Lac, you can’t exactly mistake the sleepy town for a hub of new industry.
But with the completion of Highway 30 — a long-anticipated bypass route around the island of Montreal — area mayors and economists are thinking big.
Three years ago, Canadian Tire opened a $240-million distribution centre in the area — a facility that uses top technology to make warehousing and transportation more efficient.
Economic development officials believe the plant, which employs about 600, is just the first of many logistics, warehouses and distribution centres bound for the area.
Canadian Pacific Railway could soon follow with an ambitious project to build a intermodal freight terminal and distribution centre on 330 hectares in Les Cèdres, just west of Vaudreuil-Dorion. The terminal would be the destination for the growing volume of Chinese imports currently arriving at the port of Vancouver and being transported across Canada by rail and could bring 900 more trucks to the region.
With the $1.5-billion project to complete Highway 30, set to open in December, the Vaudreuil-Soulanges area is planning to sell itself as a strategic hub for logistics. It’s hoped the highway will be the impetus the region needs to attract a new industry that will employ between 12,000 and 15,000.
“In the U.S., this is where the biggest investment is going, because they’re trying to make their inventories as efficient as possible,” said Julien Turcotte, the general manager of the Centre local de développement Vaudreuil-Soulanges. “Distribution is becoming the name of the game.”
While warehousing and distribution jobs might not sound very exciting, Turcotte explained newer warehouses use new technology to automate the work, so many of the jobs are technical, rather than manual-labour intensive.
Situated where Highway 30 intersects with Highway 20 and Highway 540, the Vaudreuil-Soulanges area is strategically located to take advantage of one of the continent’s busiest shipping routes between Montreal and Toronto. The 30 also allows trucks from the U.S. to head to Ontario without having to drive through the city of Montreal — saving time in gridlock, and ultimately labour costs for shipping companies .
he new highway was a major reason Canadian Tire decided to build its new distribution centre run by GEMCO Inc., explained Neil McKenna, the vice-president of transportation for Canadian Tire.
“You have access to the TransCanada Highway, and you have access to an alternate route,” McKenna said.
He added that for every minute a truck loses in congestion, it costs Canadian Tire about $1 in lost productivity. He said the 30 will allow Canadian Tire trucks to access 18 stores west and south of Montreal without having to drive on the island.
It’s estimated the trucking industry as a whole in Quebec will save $200 million annually in time savings because of the 30.
Guy Pilon, the mayor of Vaudreuil-Dorion, sees the region as more than just a transit point, but a destination for industry.
“We have more than $2 billion (worth of goods) passing through our region every year, so can we intercept a part of that and transform it?”
He envisions factories that will bring in goods from all over the world to be put together into final products, which can then be shipped out from the region, with access to rail, roads and ships at the Port of Montreal.
“We have a big advantage over the U.S., because we have east-west train links.” he said. “In the U.S., they have a lot of north-south links, so we can help them.”
While there is a lot of vacant land along the highway route for future companies to establish, much of it is protected by the Commission de protection du territoire agricole du Québec, which ensures that farming land doesn’t get sold to industrial interests and developed without a proper process.
Turcotte said local authorities will have to negotiate with the CPTAQ to determine which areas can be dezoned for industrial development. The CLD is now in the process of studying the terrain and determining which areas would be ideal for development.
A spokesperson for the CPTAQ told The Gazette there are currently no requests to dezone land in that region.
Michel Asselin, a former councillor in Les Cèdres, said this work should have been done long ago.
Asselin, who had part of his hobby farm expropriated by the government to make way for the new highway, said with a little foresight, the government could have built service roads and on and off ramps to access future industrial parks, at the same time as
the new highway.
“Now, trucks will just drive right through without ever stopping here,” he said.
He added that there is a row of small farms between the St. Lawrence River and the Soulanges Canal that would be ideal for a small industrial park.
“These farms are too small to be interesting for any kind of agriculture development,” he said. “I’m sure the CPTAQ would have been willing to let this go.”
Pilon agreed the process is too slow, and worries that despite its strategic location, the region could lose out amid heated competition to attract top logistics and warehouse companies from Cornwall, and U.S. towns near the border. He said it will be a years-long process to dezone the land and create proper industrial parks.
“It should have been done 10 years ago,” Pilon said, adding that the government has been loathe to dezone farming areas for fear it could be politically hazardous. “If you talk about dezoning in Quebec, it’s like you’re a criminal. Especially with the new government in place, it’s going to be even more difficult to talk about dezoning.”
But Turcotte said environmentalists should be pleased with part of a plan for the new industrial zone that would force all large warehouses to build green roofs to be used to grow fruits and vegetables for the region.
But besides attracting new companies, Turcotte said he believes the 30 will also help existing companies in the region, as it will improve transportation from Montreal’s South Shore.
“It will allow us to have access to employees in the Longueuil region because we have a shortage of employees,” he said. “This will make it easier for them to travel here.”