GUYSBOROUGH: A recent report suggesting the Province of Nova Scotia concentrate port development efforts in Halifax over places such as Melford and Sydney is drawing criticism.
Richie Mann, vice president of marketing for the Melford International Terminal, referred to the report, conducted by CPCS Consultants, as “amateur.” He said MIT was interviewed for the report but “either what we said wasn’t understood or perhaps it was just ignored.”
“There doesn’t seem to be a recognition of the value proposition of Melford,” said Mann.
“But I think most important, and maybe the biggest flaw of all, we’ve never asked the province to do anything. We’ve never asked them to invest them to invest in our project. We haven’t asked them for finances. We haven’t asked for anything.”
Mann questioned why anyone would say the province shouldn’t be interested in Melford when the province could receive the economic benefits of such a project without expending any capital.
“I think what’s encouraging about it [is] the Transportation Minister [Geoff MacLellan] has said the Province of Nova Scotia does not endorse this report so they have seen it for what it is and have said that is not going to be our roadmap going forward,” said Mann, adding the only thing MIT has asked of the province is to allow for fair competition.
“This report really has no impact on the way we do business. We’ll continue to move forward and hopefully, before long, bring our project to reality.”
The report was jointly funded by the provincial Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal and the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency.
“I think the province shouldn’t be involved any of the ports,” said Guysborough Warden Vernon Pitts.
“What is being proposed for the Melford area is… it’s private money. There is no [public] money sunk into this whatsoever. I think all levels of government should stay out of that and let business do business. Business will decide where the best port will be and business will decide where they are going to do business. The municipality is no different. We should stay out of that and let business decide where business wants to locate.”
On June 6, MIT and Cyrus Capital Partners, the majority owner of MIT, announced a joint venture and investment with SSA Marine for the newly dubbed Melford Atlantic Gateway, a 315-acre container terminal, with 250 acres of logistics park lands and the corridor necessary to build 32 kilometers of rail spur to connect with the existing rail line.