The Nova Scotia government has given supporters of a container terminal in the Strait of Canso two more years to get their project off the ground.
According to the latest deadline extension, the province of Melford has given International Terminal Inc. until October 2024 to begin construction on the $350 million project that has been under consideration for 15 years along the Guysborough County coast.
The deadline extension is a routine part of working in the global shipping industry, said Richie Mann, the company’s vice president of marketing.
Still, the project is getting closer to launch ahead of the October 2024 deadline, he said.
“The start of construction has never really been defined, but is it realistic? Absolutely,” Mann said. “We are still moving forward with the project. Development is still in progress.”
The deadline is part of an agreement reached after the province sold some land to Melford proponents on a number of terms.
Last in a series of delays
Mann said previous delays were due to global shipping conditions, but recently indicators have been moving in Melford’s favour.
Trade routes are shifting from the Pacific to the Atlantic and some West Coast ports are suffering from congestion.
The result has been an overall increase in shipping volume on the East Coast, Mann said.
But deciding to start building a terminal means looking 75 to 100 years ahead, rather than relying on a snapshot of the current business climate, he said.
“It’s about economic forecasts, it’s about trends and it’s about partners who have the same vision and are willing to invest, and we’re optimistic … that the time is right and that this project will continue.”
Mann said he was confident construction of the terminal would begin before the final deadline.
“The proponents of this project, and obviously the investors who have continued to fund our progress and activities, have never lost their belief that this project makes a lot of sense, that it can be beneficial for Canada, especially the east coast of Canada, and that it this is sustainable and addresses many of the demographic shifts in the shipping industry,” he said.
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