[SYDNEY, NS] — An update on port development at Cape Breton regional council Tuesday raised the possibility of four potential bidders competing to transform the greenfield site into an international container terminal.
Cape Breton Regional Municipality chief administrative officer Jerry Ryan said the two consultants pegged by council at a cost of $10,000 a month to market the greenfield property — Edward Zimney and Gordon Forsyth lV — had spoken with an interested party in Vancouver last week.
John Whalley, the municipality’s economic development manager, also spoke briefly, saying he wouldn’t be surprised if an announcement came at some point during the summer.
Following the council session, Mayor John Morgan was hesitant to speak about a particular company interested in the property.
“There are leads there... it would probably be premature for me to get ahead. I have heard from them, they wanted confidentiality, but there are people who are extremely interested in putting a container ship terminal in Sydney harbour,” he said.
“If anything, if there was doubt in going down this road, I think the staff have grown more confident as time has gone on. I think we’ve got every reason to be optimistic about it.”
CBRM council voted last month to purchase the Laurentian-owned greenfield site for $6 million. It was a deal Laurentian shareholders chose over a competing bid by Atlantic Gateway Shipping Terminals Ltd., which had planned to use the site for a break bulk terminal, but also considered developing a container terminal as part of future plans.
With CBRM now in control of the greenfield site, Whalley indicated in an issue paper earlier this month that the municipality should seek to purchase adjacent properties on the harbour bottom, as well as a water lot property that separates the greenfield site from the water.
Transport Canada, which currently owns the harbour bottom, is looking to divest itself of the property, likely a sale to Enterprise Cape Breton Corp. for “a nominal fee,” Morgan said in a June 13 letter to Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency Minister Bernard Valcourt.
In the letter Morgan said the community needs to have control of its harbour assets. ECBC is a branch of ACOA.
“The CBRM council is of the view that ECBC is not the appropriate body to own the harbour bottom and that such a transfer is only appropriate if ECBC proceeds to immediately convey this property to the CBRM for a similar nominal fee,” the mayor wrote.
He asked the minister to intervene on ECBC’s behalf to “ensure that the local community is allowed to own the harbour bottom.”
Morgan said municipal staff contacted ECBC officials in early June, but had yet to hear a response on the federal Crown corporation’s interest in the harbour bottom.
In an email message Tuesday afternoon, ECBC spokesman D.A. Landry said the corporation isn’t prepared to comment on the “factual content” of Morgan’s letter, nor will it discuss its future involvement in any port development in Sydney harbour.
However, Morgan remains determined the municipality will gain total control of the harbour’s property.
“Right now, it’s the municipal government that’s going to own assets on both sides of the harbour. The federal government doesn’t own assets any longer on either side of the harbour, and it’s getting out of that business,” he said.
“It’s consistent with what we’ve been pursuing over the last number of years, and now months ... with respect to container ship development.”
Morgan said he expected discussions will continue between the CBRM, Transport Canada and ECBC for some time to come.
