Funding green-lighted for vehicle-processing centre at Port of Nanaimo.
Canada’s Minister of Transport Marc Garneau on Wednesday announced an investment of more than C$6.3 million for a project at the Port of Nanaimo, on the east coast of Vancouver Island in British Columbia, that is expected to change the way cars are imported into Canada.
“The Nanaimo Port Authority will design, build, finance and operate a 60,000 square-foot vehicle processing center and supporting infrastructure to repurpose its existing Nanaimo assembly wharf as a multi-purpose general cargo terminal with an initial focus on automobiles,” Transport Canada said.
Phase one is the major build and will commence in July, with completion in December, according to the port, with a spokesperson adding how the timeframe for initial loads is expected to commence in January 2019.
The facility will process about 12,000 vehicles per year, with volumes growing to about 25,000 vehicles annually, according to the port. Phase two will increase the number of vehicles processed from about 25,000 vehicles per year to about 50,000 vehicles per year.
Instead of importing European cars into Halifax and then shipping them by rail across the country, cars will be able to go through the Panama Canal and up to Nanaimo, according to CHEK Media Group. The cars will be prepared for market in Nanaimo before being distributed into western Canada.
Nanaimo Port Authority Chair Michelle Corfield said the project would have been tougher to achieve without the funding, but the port probably would have gone through with it regardless.
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