Good morning, everyone.
Thank you very much for inviting me to speak to you today.
I’m going to give you some information about the Port of Saguenay.
The Port of Saguenay is located on the Saguenay River and forms part of the wider family of St. Lawrence—Saguenay ports. The St. Lawrence is one of the most important shipping routes in North America.
A distinctive feature of the Port of Saguenay is that it was relocated in the early 1980s. Originally situated in the city centre, back when it was part of the former town of Chicoutimi, the port was moved outside the city centre. It is now located away from the city centre, far from residential areas. The move was specifically intended to take advantage of the deep waters of the Saguenay River, which is one of its major benefits. Indeed, Saguenay is capable of accommodating very large ships. We also wanted to encourage industrial development around the port, so that it could act as a catalyst for economic growth.
The port is open all year round. As I said, it can accommodate the largest ships in Quebec. One of the port’s distinguishing features is the size of its land holdings. Currently, the Saguenay Port Authority owns over 1,200 hectares of land directly adjacent to the port, designated as an industrial zone to accommodate large-scale industrial facilities. That’s around 12 square kilometres of land, so it’s very large.
We are currently planning the development of one of the largest port industrial zones in Canada, in collaboration with the Government of Quebec and the City of Saguenay, both of which have announced, alongside us, significant investments in the infrastructure of the port industrial zone. We are currently building a multi-user bulk handling system, at a cost of $110 million, which will be operational from June. We are putting in place infrastructure that will enable us to handle large volumes of bulk cargo efficiently. We have had the support of the provincial and federal governments for this project.
We also stand out because of our location, which is further north in Quebec, slightly inland thanks to the Saguenay River. This gives us excellent access to the entire hinterland of north-western Quebec. We are well connected to the existing railway network, which extends as far as the Chibougamau—Chapais area—one of the most prolific mining regions at present, particularly for critical and strategic minerals. We therefore have a good connection to this network.
The Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region, where we are located, is well known in the industrial sector. It is one of the main aluminum-producing regions in North America, amongst other things. There is a significant metallurgical sector and a wide range of industries here. Furthermore, one of Saguenay’s neighbours is the Bagotville military base, one of the largest military bases in the country.
What we see in the region is a port that is developing assets with a view to industrial transformation; it is a port with a large capacity to accommodate ships; it is a well-located port, with good connections to the northern parts of Quebec where mining projects are under way; it is a port that provides us with a good link for trading with Europe, amongst others, and with other countries. That is what we are currently seeking.
We are in the process of building this infrastructure. We have the support of the Government of Quebec and the City of Saguenay. We are also working with the federal government and the Canada Infrastructure Bank to develop the financial models that will enable us to complete this infrastructure. This is extremely strategic. We believe our positioning fits very well with what we are currently seeking to develop in Quebec and Canada, namely having west-east corridors to export our goods, particularly in the mining sector in our case, given the proximity of our resources. We also want to be able to generate added value by establishing industries around the port. That is what we are currently setting up. We plan to start construction on this infrastructure this year, in fact. We are at that stage now.
That is where we currently stand. To build on our momentum, we are seeking the federal government’s support to fund certain additional infrastructure projects that we require. A number of programs were announced last week, and we hope to be able to benefit from them. In fact, last autumn, as part of the most recent budget, the government made announcements regarding port infrastructure. We are very pleased with these announcements, but we will also need support for industrial infrastructure. We expect the Canada Infrastructure Bank, amongst others, to support us in this regard.
We are a small Canadian port authority, but we are experiencing very strong growth, and thanks to our capacity and location, we have the potential to significantly help Canada achieve its goals regarding the processing and export of critical and strategic minerals. We therefore need the resources that will enable us to grow.