PORT COLBORNE, Ontario — The Canadian government will invest up to C$22.7 million to rebuild three long-idle wharves along the Welland Canal on the St. Lawrence Seaway in Port Colborne, generating marine traffic that will move by rail or truck, Transport Canada has announced.
The federal funding will be backed by $22.6 million from the St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corp. to rebuild wharves 18-1, 18-2, and 18-3, which have been vacant for more than decade because of crumbling walls, the Welland Tribune reports. The improvement will add 1 million metric tons of freight capacity to the area, Transport Minister Omar Alghabra and Seaway CEO Terence Bowles said during an announcement in Port Colborne.
The land involved is owned by the federal government and managed by the seaway. The federal funding will come from the National Trade Corridors Fund, for which C$4.7 billion has been allocated between 2017 and 2028.
“New business and new opportunities are being created on once-abandoned lands along the Welland Canal,” Vance Badawey, the area’s Member of Parliament, said in a press release, “and today our government is taking a bold step in strengthening the Niagara Ports Trade Corridor while also opening the door to an expansion of Niagara’s world class tourism market.”
Port Colborne Mayor Bill Steele said the work will also accommodate more visits by cruise ships. The city saw 66 stops by cruise ships in 2022 and projects the number will grow to 122 by 2024.
All I can figure is this will allow oversize Lakers (boats that don’t fit in the Welland canal) to move cargo from the Superior Lakehead (i.e. Thunder Bay) to the Ontario Golden Horseshoe (Fort Erie to Toronto), instead of rail movement.
I should add they would move the cargo to points on Lake Ontario from Port Colborne on Lake Erie by truck or rail.