Dont expect too much from this report. In the final analysis CN Rail will determine where the Inland Ports will be located, and in all probability they will run them. The fact that 99% of all the inbound containers will go to Chicago, Memphis, Toronto, and Montreal means that there will be nothing available in this area for distribution on the inbound traffic.

To give you some insight on this here is a quote from the Wall Street Journal dated August 8,2006.

**While most port terminals have sprawling lanes for thousands of trucks, Prince Rupert--because so little cargo will be used locally-will have only one truck gate. The vast majority of containers will be loaded onto rail cars. To help fill containers for tlhe return trip to Asia, CN Rail will build new depots along a route from Memphis, Tenn. that will collect soybeans, cotton, paper and other exports**

I suspect that if they locate an Inland Terminal in Prince George it will be for loading, Lumber, Pulp, and Newsprint, from the surrounding area, Mackenzie, Quesnel, Prince George etc; This traffic presently moves to Vancouver BC via rail, for stuffing in containers, however if it is cheaper to load them in containers here then that is what they will do. This of course means a loss of Rail Traffic, and Truck Traffic to Vancouver. However these lost jobs would be replaced by the jobs created by the Container Loading Facility, with little or no net gain.

You dont build a Container Port Terminal,for a cost of 150 Million Dollars, for 500,000 TEU,S without having a plan as to where your Containers are going loaded and where the empty containers will be loaded for the return trip.

As I said this will be an interesting report but I suspect not worth the money, as the decisions surrounding this venture have been made long ago.

The shippers of the products decide, not the transportation companies.

The shippers of the product have decided years ago, Runner, thats why the Containers are going loaded to the Eastern USA, where the huge population base is. The shippers will only load empty containers here to go to Prince Rupert, if it is cheaper that going to Vancouver. Its simple economics. The Railway will decide where the Terminal will be built, based on available business. Dont forget they already get a lot of this business to Vancouver, and they may make more money handling it South rather that to Rupert.

There are 75000, to 100,000 containers loading a year in Vancouver with Pulp, Paper, Lumber, etc; that comes out of this area. Mackenzie, Prince George, Taylor, Quesnel, and points West. This has been going on for the last 15/20 years. If they go to Prince Rupert instead of Vancouver, this is no big deal, as it is 500 miles in either direction, so it comes down to cost. This is old business, not new business, so the question is this;

Where will the new business come from?? So far I havent heard a thing that indicates that there will be any.

Something like the Airport Expansion. Some lofty statements about taking business away from the Airports in Anchorage/Fairbanks. Dont count on it'.

Pal, the new business will come from export oportunities not picking through the containers destine for Toronto, Montreal, & Chicago.

They key to all of this is if we can position our region as a place to assemble final products for export. Otherwise no real net gain, just stability for future opportunities.

I think if you have a container airport making it cost effective to fly in small parts, and a railway making it cost effective to bring in the larger components, than you have an opportunity for assembly for export. Hence the real growth from any container port is 10 years out at best, and the question becomes one of sequence of events and what do we do to cover the gaps. My opinion is we intensify the local infrastructure build out with a n industrial ring road (cut down on polution & create transport efficiencies)so we are competitive towards our long term goals and as a way to cover our gapping gap we will have between softwood and containerization for export.

The political leaders are coming around, but my hope is that this report will clarify things for them so they can focus on what their role will be in making our economic diversification a reality.

Time Will Tell

PS if this report talks at all about import oportunities than I think it won't be worth the paper it is written on. Runner is right in that it will be the shippers not the transportation companies that will decide where to assemble their products for export. We need to create the conditions for those shippers to be competitive.

Small parts and larger components for what?
Why wouldnt you assemble them whereever they are going. Why would you do it in Prince George?

I have no idea what these people have in mind however I guess we will get a glimpse on Monday.

I think that the hype for the Inland Terminal, Airport Runway Expansion, and Oil and Gas in the Nechako Basin, is a **slick willy** political ploy to keep our minds occupied by making us beleive that something is going to happen. This will go on at least until after the next election, after which it will start to die down, and of course by then all monies would be spent on 2010.

Ive seen all this crap in years gone by.

(1) Railway to Yukon
(2) Alum Plant and Pulp Mill in Vanderhoof
(3) Development and Railway in the Rocky Mountain Trench
(4) Huge Slaughterhouse for Beef and Pigs in the Vanderhoof Area.100,000 Cattle 200,000 Pigs
(5) Steel mill at Salmon Valley

None of these big productions got beyond the next election, and I suspect that these others will fizzle over time.

The only ones that will go forward will be;
(1) Port of Prince Rupert Container Terminal
(2) Pipeline from Kitimat to Edmonton Alta
(3) Rebuild of the Alcan Alum Plant
(4) Kemess North

These will go forward for the simple reason that they are proposed by Private Investors and Private money is being spent. In the case of the Prince Rupert Container Terminal $60,000,000.00 is being spent by Maher Terminals (A US Company) who has a 60 year lease. CN will invest$15 Million
Kitimat Pipeline is being built by Enbridge.
Alcan by Alcan
Kemess by Private Money.

The Airport Expansion is all Taxpayers money
There is no indication anywhere at this time that any private money is going into the Prince George area, unless CN Rail builds a Container Terminal which for those who do not understand such things, is no more than a huge acreage with a few thousand empty containers blocking your view in every direction, a warehouse with some truck bays for storing some product and loading some containers. Thats all folks'

You'll agree with anything Leroux, hence lefty.

I figure a container port is simply a container port, but if you look at what it enables than you can see the big picture. Private money invests where there is existing infrastructure or resources that can be acquired with minimal responsibility and investment. Having a container port capability is an advantage to doing business in Prince Geroge.

You got my vote Pal even if chader cadder thinks there are to many sheep.

Cheers

from the page linked below ....

John Vickerman, a U.S.-based ports consultant who has worked around the world, succeeded Wednesday in getting a room full of shipping industry and economic development officials in Saskatoon excited about what an inland port handling ocean-going containers might do for the economy of Saskatchewan.

Vickerman, who has made a career of studying the logistics of ports and the transportation networks that serve them, told his Saskatchewan audience that Canada's rail network, combined with two new container ports at Prince Rupert, B.C., and Canso Strait, N.S., could make Canada part of a North American "landbridge" for the growing export output of Asia.

http://www.canada.com/saskatoonstarphoenix/news/business/story.html?id=9706ba3b-f0c0-443b-821e-a249ab67f02d
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a US example in the centre of a densely populated area
http://www.kcsmartport.com
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Kamploops study released a month ago in relation to the Port of Vancouver ...

the benefits are listed as the following:

Benefits of an Intermodal Container Facility

• Remove a significant number of truck trips off Lower Mainland roads and add to significant savings in highway maintenance and rehabilitation costs from reduction in heavy transport trucks on the Trans-Canada Highway through the Rockies and Lower Mainland as heavy transport trucks are major contributors to highway maintenance costs.
• The Kamloops intermodal container facility will provide another option for shippers to get their product to the port for export.
• Increase capacity and efficiency of the Vancouver Port.
• Reduce shipping costs for local manufacturing companies for both commodity
• Unique selling point for attracting manufacturing companies to Kamloops.
• Create jobs in the region as a result of expanding the freight, intermodal and distribution industry in Kamloops.
• Attract investment into the transportation infrastructure of Kamloops from railways, private industry and senior levels of government.

http://www.venturekamloops.com/SiteCM/U/D/3EA46D986297C5A3.pdf