By Leo Ryan, Editor
After an already eventful first year at the helm, Julie Gascon now finds herself navigating the Port of Montreal through the daunting moving sands of the Trump tariff war. In an interview with Maritime Magazine, she suggested that this is additional incentive amid global economic and supply chain challenges to move resolutely forward especially with the Contrecœur container terminal project, the port’s biggest undertaking in modern history to enhance its competitiveness as a key gateway to North America.
“The global economic uncertainty that we are living right now just underscores the urgency of building a resilient infrastructure,” the port President and CEO said. “We must have a strong supply chain to face the long-term challenges that will come about especially with what is going on down South and the tariffs.
“I don’t think this time around that this economic uncertainty will just vanish when Trump leaves. It’s here to stay.”
“Fortunately,” she shared, “Canada is waking up to the need to take the bull by the horns. We have to diversify our economy, find new trading partners.
“In fact, we (in Canada) have got a market of over a billion people that we can reach through existing free trade agreements with various countries. We need to maximize those relationships. We have to diversify our trade routes, strengthen our competitiveness and invest in maritime transport to offer a sustainable and reliable solution.”
After recalling that Canada is bordered by three oceans, Ms. Gascon declared: “It’s about time that we see Canada as a maritime nation. It’s not a coincidence that many countries around the world, including our American neighbours, are doing everything they can to protect their ports and they are investing billions of dollars in trade infrastructure.”
In her view, such massive investments provide “a guarantee of economic sovereignty for countries. It is through ports that you import and export. Having a route that we control where our goods are going and where they are coming from is of crucial strategic value.”
Ms. Gascon notes that the port of Montreal is strategically located for accessing the industrial heartland of the continent. “In effect, we are at the cornerstone of the third largest economy in the world if you combine the Great Lakes states, Ontario and Quebec, where 65% of the Canadian population lives within 12-70 hours of the Port of Montreal. Also 75% of the manufacturing capacity of the country is near the Port of Montreal. Getting vessels to Montreal is the most economic, sustainable and fastest way to bring goods to markets.”
Otherwise, generally-speaking, Ms. Gascon stressed: ”We need to mobilise all the stakeholders to really strengthen the Great-Lakes/St. Lawrence maritime corridor.”
Cooperation of St. Lawrence ports
This was referring partly to the virtual strategic alliance that was expanded to five ports last fall, with Sept-Îles and Saguenay joining Montreal, Quebec and Trois-Rivières in a cooperation agreement.
“We are very complementary, we don’t compete against each other,” Ms. Gascon noted. “Sept-Îles, for instance, specializes in iron pellets and can accommodate the largest bulk vessels in the world. Saguenay has lots of logistics infrastructure, heavy machinery, and lots of land. Montreal, Trois-Rivières, and Quebec don’t necessarily compete against each other. We work better together in terms of technology, looking how we can share best practices. Yes, there are limitations to the collaboration due to the Competition Act framework. But it would be great to push collaboration further in strategic planning.”
Update on Contrecœur project
Meanwhile, if all proceeds according to a revised operational target of late 2029, the Contrecœur facility will add 1.15 million containers per year to an existing capacity of 2.1 million TEUs on Montreal Island. Due to delays and inflation, its estimated cost has ballooned to north of $1.5 billion. Offering high-velocity and green features, the terminal will bolster Montreal’s attractiveness as a hub serving core markets in Quebec, Ontario and the US Midwest. CN has teamed up with the Montreal Port Authority (MPA) to integrate transport at the future facility.
In partnership with Pomerleau and Aecon, the MPA is shouldering the whole in-water infrastructure. Ms. Gascon indicated that 90% of the design and engineering has now been completed. After potentially getting a construction permit from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans this coming summer, Ms. Gascon said “beginning in the fall of 2025 we are ready to put shovel in the ground. This is how far we are in terms of the design of the water infrastructure which can create up to 8,000 jobs.”
On the land side, Ms. Gascon said the Port is in negotiation with an international private partner whose identity remains confidential – “and it’s going very well.”
Then, continuing: “But we’ve done a lot already: we’ve secured an agreement with Hydro Québec for the electricity that will support the terminal in its first phase and the phases after that. It will be a high velocity rail terminal. We’ve invested 6 km of rail allowing us on our infrastructure to provide fluidity on the terminal, and invested in an overpass – the Vickers overpass in the Viau sector – that once it’s connected will allow trucks to be in free flow around Montreal and not in the local network.”
During the interview, Ms. Gascon also disclosed that discussions are in progress with Transport Canada, the Canadian Coast Guard, the pilotage authorities and pilotage corporations to allow newer containerships with bigger capacity than the older generation vessels and that can meet the draught restrictions of the channels of the St. Lawrence River leading to Montreal.
“We are working on tests and trials of those vessels which have a new design and can carry more,” Ms. Gascon explained. The first series of ships being considered would have capacities of up to 6500 TEUs, compared with current container vessels carrying 4,500 TEUs, and then the second series with capacities between 8,500 and 10,000 TEUs. “It translates into significantly increased economies of scale,” Ms. Gascon said.
Julie Gascon joined the Port of Montreal on February 12, 2024 following an extensive career with the Canadian Coast Guard and Transport Canada. A full agenda since then has included restoring operations back to normal in the wake of the docker strikes and lockout that severely disrupted supply chains last fall. She prides herself over heading “a strong and resilient team focussed on the future and serving Canadians.”
(Photos MPA)