Port of Montreal welcomes Government of Canada’s support for Contrecœur expansion project
The Montréal Port Authority (MPA) is welcoming the $150 million allocated to the container terminal project in Contrecœur through the National Trade Corridors Fund (NTCF) recently announced by Canada’s Transport Minister, Pablo Rodriguez.
This investment is a step towards improving the fluidity of Canada’s supply chain.
The federal government’s financial support confirms the significance of the Contrecœur expansion project in light of the expected growth in the container sector to cater to the requirements of importers, exporters, and consumers.
The Port of Montréal’s expansion of its activities at Contrecœur received a Decision Statement from Canada’s Minister of the Environment and Climate Change in 2021, allowing the project to proceed.
“This financial backing from the federal government sends a strong message about our large Contrecœur expansion project and the future of the logistics ecosystem in the St. Lawrence corridor. It lets us embark on the next steps with confidence, so that we can continue to play our vital role as a sustainable economic driver at the heart of the Quebec and Canadian economies,” said Geneviève Deschamps, interim president and chief executive officer of the MPA.
The financial support announced by Federal Transport Minister Pablo Rodriguez will allow the MPA to implement a fresh strategy for the extensive expansion project on Montréal’s South Shore.
Under this new approach, the MPA will assume additional project responsibilities, and cancels the current call for tenders to opt for a more agile approach.
Work on the future terminal will be carried out in hybrid mode.
Marine works will be entirely carried out by the MPA. The MPA will act as prime contractor for this phase, including dock construction and dredging work. Project planning will use a Design-Build approach (“DB model”) with a specialized firm helping the MPA for the next nine to 12 months. At the end of this phase, the MPA will assign the project works according to its procurement processes, and will present an updated schedule for this component of the project works.
Land site works and operations will be carried out with a private partner. The MPA will issue a Request for Proposals in early 2024 to select a private partner to build the terminal. Additionally, this private partner will operate and maintain the terminal under a DBFOM (Design-Build-Finance-Operate Maintain). The water-based project works mentioned above are excluded from this
component.
As a result, the DBFOM procurement process launched in November 2021, which included both the terminal’s construction work and its operation, has been cancelled. This has been done to make way for this new method which will successfully carry out the project. Discussions with the bidders did not lead to a result deemed satisfactory by the MPA after factoring in market trends, including interest rates and inflation, between the time the Request for Qualifications began in 2021 to present day.
“MPA teams are continuing their rigorous planning on the Port of Montréal’s major Contrecœur expansion project that is so crucial to keeping supply chains resilient. The new procurement process put forward will enable us to control risks, project works and costs more effectively in the current context,” said Deschamps.