The Port of Thunder Bay will be receiving $804,955 from the province’s Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation (NOHFC) to expand Keefer Terminal.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced the news at the Port of Thunder Bay on Tuesday.
The new investment will allow the terminal to increase the size of its staging and storage area by 10 acres, enabling a greater capacity for shipping and storing goods.
The port is a significant stop for international shipping, with regular shipments of steel products such as mining and electrical equipment, grain and fertilizer passing through.
CEO Chris Heikkinen of the Thunder Bay Port Authority described the port as the largest export port on the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway system.
He credited the funding announcement as a way to help the port “expand our service offerings, improve cargo handling efficiency, and most importantly, ensure available capacity for growing international import volumes.”
Mayor Ken Boshcoff described the port improvements as “a confidence builder for our city and our region,” which will “really re-emphasize our role in the East-West trade.”
At the announcement, Premier Ford touted some of Ontario’s other investments in Thunder Bay in recent months and years, including a nearly $1 billion Alstom contract to create subway cars for Toronto, and a $93 million project to build a new cardiovascular surgery program at the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre.
“We’re making these investments to ensure families, workers, and businesses have the world-class services and infrastructure they need to thrive in northwestern Ontario,” he said. “Thunder Bay and northern Ontario are a vital link between our province and the rest of the country.”
The funding announcement came alongside $2 million in new NOHFC funding for a new marine terminal at Marathon and Biigtigong Nishnaabeg’s Peninsula Harbour Port Authority, to be built on the site of the old Marathon Pulp Mill.
“Today’s strategic investment will ensure both ports are positioned to capitalize on the once-in-a-generation opportunity in the Ring of Fire now and for decades to come,” the premier added.
