Thank you for the opportunity to appear here today.
I would like to begin by acknowledging that the port of Corner Brook operates on the traditional territory of the Beothuk, and that the island of Newfoundland is the ancestral homeland of the Mi'kmaq.
The port of Corner Brook is a not-for-profit community-based port serving western Newfoundland and Labrador. We are not a Canada port authority. When the federal government divested our port in 2004, we became fully responsible for operating and maintaining federally built infrastructure without the borrowing capacity or revenue streams available to CPAs.
Across Canada, independent ports like ours play a critical role in regional and national supply chain resilience. In Atlantic Canada alone, we handle roughly 40% of all domestic and international marine trade. Our ports move the people and goods that fuel the Canadian economy—critical minerals, forest products, seafood and energy—while sustaining rural and coastal communities.
In western Newfoundland, emerging opportunities in critical minerals, including inputs for clean energy technologies, highlight the importance of reliable marine infrastructure to move equipment, supplies and future critical mineral products to market.
The port of Corner Brook already contributes to Canada's trade network through our international container service and global exports, in partnership with Kruger-owned Corner Brook Pulp and Paper. With upgraded infrastructure, we can further diversify and continue to strengthen Canada's global competitiveness.
Independent ports also play a critical role in national security and Arctic operations. We provide staging points for the Canadian Coast Guard and the Royal Canadian Navy, supporting vessel patrols, resupply missions and emergency response. Our ports underpin regional resilience, ensuring essential goods reach communities during extreme weather or supply disruptions and supporting food security.
Like many ports across the country, however, we are managing aging core infrastructure well beyond its intended useful life. To illustrate the scale of this challenge for independent ports, we recently issued an RFP for repairs to just 65 piles. The final cost for those repairs was $5.2 million. Our port has approximately 1,500 piles, the majority of which will require repair or replacement within the next decade.
For a not-for-profit port without CPA-level borrowing authority or the revenue levers, the costs are not recoverable, yet the infrastructure is essential to the industries and communities we serve. Deterioration is accelerating, and without timely intervention, the costs will only continue to increase.
To address this, we have undertaken assessments for a potential expansion and modernization initiative, a once-in-a-generation opportunity to secure safe and reliable marine infrastructure for western Newfoundland and, by extension, Canada's supply chains. The project includes rehabilitating aging assets, adding a new berth and lay-down capacity, and improving climate resilience. This will increase our ability to support additional container traffic, renewable energy projects and critical mineral supply chains. Initial estimates exceed well beyond $100 million, however, for an investment that would deliver benefits far beyond our region.
Many existing federal programs, whether due to cost-share expectations or repayable loan structures, implicitly assume CPA-level resources. This unintentionally limits the ability of independent ports to access the very programs intended to support national supply chains. We believe a federal partnership tailored to the realities of independent ports is essential to address long-standing infrastructure deficits, ensure regional supply chain reliability and food security, support rural and coastal economic development, and strengthen Canada's national transportation network.
The port of Corner Brook is ready to modernize, ready to grow and ready to support Canada's evolving trade and security needs, but to unlock that potential, independent ports require federal partnerships that reflect the realities of divested infrastructure. With the right partnerships, ports like ours can strengthen supply chains, support emerging industries and provide the capacity Canada will need in the decades ahead.
We respectfully ask that the Government of Canada develop dedicated funding and policy tools that recognize the unique capacities and limitations of divested community-based ports.
Thank you again for the opportunity to appear. I will be pleased to take your questions.