Panel data provided by Madison's Canadian Lumber Reporter.

Plans for Inland Container Port For P.G.

By Ben Meisner

Imagine, a container port right here in Prince George, on BC Rail property

Meetings are scheduled next week with BC Rail properties in an effort to reach agreement on 30 to 40 acres of land on which a long time BC rail contractor hopes to build an inland container port. 

The idea  comes from Dennis Huot ,  he has been a contractor maintaining railway spurs into Pulp Mills  saw mills, refineries and other spur lines.  

Huot  says "With the cooperation of the three levels of Government, we hope to attract additional investors to build the project."  

Huot is to meet with Agriculture Minister Pat Bell on October 14th. 

Huot says "The pulp and saw mills that I have talked to would prefer handling their products two less times in getting them to market and an inland container port in this city would do just that. "  

According to Huot  “At present, containers are off loaded and shipped to places such as Edmonton, Calgary and Winnipeg. They return empty to the port “  

He told Opinion 250 News that at present,  these mills load a box car of pulp or lumber, it is then off loaded in Vancouver and held in a warehouse until a container is available.  The container is then loaded and transferred to a container ship. By loading those items here, into the returning containers, he says companies would cut handling times, increasing their bottom line and time to get the product to their markets. 

Huot doesn’t see Kamloops as a threat for an inland container port. He says "Look around, Prince George, Mackenzie, Vanderhoof and all the points in this region are the single largest exporter of wood products."  "It just wouldn't make sense to have an inland container port anywhere else than in the very spot where the products originate."

Next Monday, the company will begin developing a business plan and will deal with the properties division of BC Rail to hopefully get the project rolling. 

A container port, says Huot , could provide up to 200 good paying jobs for the region and would assist Prince Rupert in its development plans for a new container facility. 


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