MONTREAL, Que. – Captain Jean-Luc Bédard scrambles up a steep, rocky bank to survey what he calls the lungs of his operation, a series of rail lines feeding the Port of Montreal.
He tells a visitor that while the rusty rails may look mundane compared to the recently toured container ships, it’s the first video image he calls up every morning when he arrives at the port’s control centre. That’s because those rails move 60 percent of the goods coming in and out of the port.
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“If my lungs are clear I know I can breathe easy,” said the port’s vice-president of operations and harbour master, gnawing on an already well-chewed, plastic coffee stir stick.
Those lungs, along with the heart of the port, are scheduled for a $2.5 billion reconstructive surgery.
On April 17, port president Patrice Pelletier announced plans to triple the facility’s container-handling capacity by 2020 to capitalize on a sector that is growing three times as fast as global gross domestic product.
“We must act right away to obtain a large share of this traffic,” he said in making the announcement.
In 2007, the port handled 1.36 million 20 foot equivalent units (TEUs), which is about 85 percent of its container capacity. By the time its 2020 vision is complete, the port will have boosted its capacity to 4.5 million TEUs.
“Our competitors are on the move in the United States,” said Pelletier during a July 14 presentation to delegates attending the Canadian Special Crops Association meeting in Montreal.
“Standing still is not an option for us.”
Pelletier told CSCA delegates the planned expansion will give them better access to their customer base.
Greg Cherewyk, director of transportation with Pulse Canada, said the project is exactly what the pulse industry is pushing for in its transportation strategy.
“It is going to be incredibly important. This port has always been critical for our shippers to access the European Union, the Middle East and to potentially service part of the Indian subcontinent.”
Most of the pulses and special crops produced in Western Canada move by container. The majority is exported through the Port of Vancouver but Montreal has become an increasingly important distribution point.
In 2007, Montreal’s port shipped 742,192 tonnes of containerized grain, up 17 percent from the previous year. Bédard said most of that traffic was special crops from Western Canada destined for markets in the North Atlantic, Mediterranean basin and South America.
“We thought that (grain) market would be more for the West Coast, but we see that number has been doing better and better on the East Coast.”
Bédard believes that is because the chronic congestion problems in Vancouver don’t exist in Montreal.
“That’s my job to make sure we don’t (have congestion). We’re very proactive here. We call it the Montreal model.”
Three times a day he is in conference calls with railway and shipping line officials to ensure the entire transportation chain stays kink-free.
Driving along the docks he points to rail cars with double-stacked containers ready to be loaded onto waiting ships. Because Montreal is a long, narrow port with little excess space, much of the container cargo sits on rail lines that are a stone’s throw from the water rather than being stacked in piles like they are in Vancouver.
Bédard said that gives Montreal better loading efficiency and he is banking on more improvements once the expansion project is complete.
He pointed to a series of rust-stained warehouses situated along the water at the oldest part of the port. All will be demolished to make room for new container-loading berths.
The road Bédard has been driving along during the port tour will be home to more rail lines, expanding the future lung capacity of the port and allowing the charismatic captain to breathe easier.
