By Ian Holmes

Feds inject $6.3M into new shipping business on Nanaimo Assembly Wharf

Jun 20, 2018 | 4:02 PM

NANAIMO — Federal dollars committed to Nanaimo’s Assembly Wharf will help fund a new industry which could support as many as 100 well-paying full time jobs.

Marc Garneau, federal Transport Minister, announced $6.3 million for the Nanaimo Port Authority to build a vehicle processing centre, which would be a holding facility for imported vehicles to be shipped elsewhere in B.C. and beyond.

The NPA expects construction to start this summer and to have the business operational early next year.

NPA board chair Michelle Corfield said an initial projection of 40-to-60 full time jobs is significant.

“Those are jobs that someone can support a family on and raise a family and be in Nanaimo for 20, 30, 40 years,” Corfield said. “They can have a lifelong career here in Nanaimo, that’s really important to us.”

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The Port anticipates the 17-acre site will initially see upwards of 25,000 vehicles held and shipped annually. A planned second phase would cover an additional 10 acres and see processing capability surge to as many as 50,000 vehicles a year, supported by 100 full time staff.

“This enables us to move to a lighter industry, minimize the noise pollution, minimize all of those other effects that have impacted the community at large,” Corfield said, referencing the shift away from a sawmill which previously occupied the site.

The NPA has partnered with Western Stevedoring to operate the vehicle processing centre.

Minister Garneau said the $6 million commitment was made following a strong case from the NPA.

“We think that it will be good not only locally here (Nanaimo) but that it will make our transportation system, with respect to imported vehicles, more efficient.”

Garneau said the project has environmental benefits as imported vehicles were previously shipped across the country by rail from eastern Canada.

ian@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @reporterholmes