{"id":575116,"date":"2026-04-10T02:57:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T02:57:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/575116\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T02:57:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T02:57:08","slug":"port-expansion-near-montreal-gets-1-16-billion-loan-in-ottawas-first-fast-tracked-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/575116\/","title":{"rendered":"Port expansion near Montreal gets $1.16-billion loan in Ottawa\u2019s first fast-tracked project"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

A container ship on the St. Lawrence River in Contrecoeur, Que., on Thursday.ANDREJ IVANOV\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

The Port of Montreal will get a $1.16-billion cash injection for a new container terminal, making it the first fast-tracked project to launch under the Carney government. <\/p>\n

The expansion, which is estimated to cost $2.3-billion overall, will more than double the container handling capacity for the port. Prime Minister Mark Carney<\/a> announced the new funding Thursday at the Contrecoeur, Que., site, about 45 kilometres northeast of Montreal, where construction is set to begin. He called it a \u201cbig, ambitious\u201d project that will be transformative for the country. <\/p>\n

The Canada Infrastructure Bank will provide a $1.16-billion loan to the Montreal Port Authority for the project, according to information released by the Crown corporation, significantly increasing the amount of its previous loan from $300-million. Transport Canada has also pledged $150-million and Quebec<\/a> $130-million, with the balance to come from the port authority and the terminal operator. <\/p>\n

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The 60-per-cent increase will allow the port to handle up to 1.15 million standard shipping containers carrying everything from food to furniture per year. The target date for first shipments is 2030.<\/p>\n

The announcement speaks to the urgency with which Ottawa wants to push forward with major projects like Contrecoeur, which was first pitched as an idea in 1988 before it stalled. Mr. Carney has pledged to double Canada\u2019s non-U.S. exports in the next decade and expand its ports system. <\/p>\n

\u201cWar in the Middle East, Russia\u2019s illegal invasion of Ukraine, and the new trade regimes are all reshaping the global economy in real time,\u201d Mr. Carney said Thursday during a news conference at the project site. \u201cCanada is focused on what we can control \u2013 building a stronger more independent more resilient economy … bolstered by international trade, with a diverse set of reliable partners.\u201d <\/p>\n

Prime Minister Mark Carney broke ground on the long-planned Port of Montreal expansion and said the project is an example of how Canada can become more independent and resilient in an uncertain time for the global economy.<\/p>\n

The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

But industry specialists say it\u2019s also a big bet that traffic at the terminal will justify the investment. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like an act of faith,\u201d said Jacques Roy, professor emeritus at HEC Montr\u00e9al\u2019s department of logistics and operations management. \u201cMy concern is that the Montreal Port Authority is borrowing money that eventually they will have to repay with future earnings and there\u2019s a lot of uncertainty about those earnings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bank officials sought to ease those worries Thursday, saying the repayment schedule is flexible and linked to the port\u2019s overall growth. The CIB will get paid out of a share of the cash flows from the Port of Montreal\u2019s consolidated business, bank chief executive Ehren Cory said, noting repayments will go up or down according to revenue. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve created a shared incentive for the port and the private operator on the port to drive volumes because they have skin in the game, too,\u201d Mr. Cory said. \u201cWe see this as a way to get a major port expansion done in the way that\u2019s lowest cost to taxpayers.\u201d <\/p>\n

The bank and the port authority have worked with credit ratings firm S&P Global to review the loan and believe they will view it positively, Mr. Cory said. The bank\u2019s loan last year to A\u00e9roports de Montr\u00e9al to support infrastructure improvements at Montreal Trudeau International Airport has a similar design, he added.<\/p>\n

The Montreal Port Authority is an autonomous federal agency that operates as a financially self-sufficient organization, generating revenues by leasing its facilities to terminal operators among other things. The agency has tapped global logistics giant DP World Ltd. to build Contrecoeur\u2019s land-based operations and run the cargo facility for the next 40 years, though talks are still under way on a final contract with the company. <\/p>\n

Container volumes at the port have risen and fallen over the past 10 years, influenced by labour disruptions and other issues. As measured by weight, the port moved 12.3 million metric tons of container cargo in 2025, a decade low. It moved more actual boxes (called 20-foot equivalent units) last year than in 2024, though many heading outbound were empty. <\/p>\n

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In January, the port won authorization from Fisheries and Oceans Canada to proceed with the Contrecoeur project, which calls for a 675-metre-wide docking platform with berths for two ships, eight loading cranes and a container storage yard linked to a rail line. <\/p>\n

The nature protection non-profit group SNAP Qu\u00e9bec has vowed to challenge the project in the Federal Court, saying proponents are circumventing environmental laws. The group commissioned a study that concludes the development could become a white elephant that\u2019s likely to be underutilized and unprofitable, \u201crepresenting a costly strategic mistake for taxpayers and an irreversible blow to biodiversity,\u201d according to Henri Chevalier, the study\u2019s co-author. One issue the group identified is the project area overlaps at least partly with the habitat of the copper redhorse fish, an endangered species.<\/p>\n

Port Authority executives and federal political leaders reject that view. \u201cCanada\u2019s trade future depends on infrastructure that is ready before demand arrives,\u201d Montreal Port Authority chairperson Nathalie Pilon said in a statement. \u201cThe Contrecoeur terminal is exactly that kind of forward-looking investment.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: A container ship on the St. Lawrence River in Contrecoeur, Que., on Thursday.ANDREJ…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":575117,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[2428,2416,2429,4,2408,2430,103,2407,2422,2423,2418,2409,2406,101,526,192,2421,2414,2441,2410,2411,2420,2417,149,983,2431,2413,2436,2437,2439,2434,2438,2432,2435,2412,2425,2426,111,2424,2433,79,2415,74,2427,2419,194,965,2440],"class_list":{"0":"post-575116","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-alberta","9":"tag-arts-news","10":"tag-bc","11":"tag-breaking-news","12":"tag-breaking-news-video","13":"tag-british-columbia","14":"tag-canada","15":"tag-canada-news","16":"tag-canada-sports","17":"tag-canada-sports-news","18":"tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","19":"tag-canadian-breaking-news","20":"tag-canadian-news","21":"tag-economy","22":"tag-education","23":"tag-environment","24":"tag-federal-government","25":"tag-foreign-news","26":"tag-globe-and-mail","27":"tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","28":"tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","29":"tag-government","30":"tag-life-news","31":"tag-lifestyle","32":"tag-local-news","33":"tag-manitoba","34":"tag-national-news","35":"tag-new-brunswick","36":"tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","37":"tag-northwest-territories","38":"tag-nova-scotia","39":"tag-nunavut","40":"tag-ontario","41":"tag-pei","42":"tag-photos","43":"tag-political-news","44":"tag-political-opinion","45":"tag-politics","46":"tag-politics-news","47":"tag-quebec","48":"tag-science","49":"tag-sports-news","50":"tag-technology","51":"tag-travel","52":"tag-trudeau","53":"tag-us-news","54":"tag-world-news","55":"tag-yukon"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=575116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575116\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/575117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=575116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=575116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=575116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}