The mayor of Port Moody said he's confident a new and controversial potash handling and storage facility on the city’s waterfront will be a benefit to the community.
Mike Clay said he was impressed by the proactive way K+S Potash Canada and Pacific Coast Terminals dealt with the city’s concerns about the project even though Port Moody has no jurisdiction at the federally regulated shipping terminal on Burrard Inlet.
“We had a few tough days at the beginning,” said Clay, who attended the official opening of the facility Monday. “Every time we had a concern, it was addressed.”
Some of those included environmental concerns about dredging of the inlet to accommodate the increasing variety of ships servicing the terminal; noise concerns during construction; and safety concerns about the storage of up to 160,000 tonnes of potash, which is used in the production of fertilizer and in other industrial applications.
The new facility, which is the western terminus for the shipment of potash from a mine K+S opened in May in Bethune, Sask., includes a railcar unloading facility, below- and above-ground conveyor belts, new transfer towers and a 263-metre-long warehouse for storage. It will be able to unload potash from an 18,000 tonne train in four and a half hours, then load the product onto ships with a capacity of 70,000 tonnes.
“We don’t get this scale and scope of investment in our community,” said Clay, noting the project will create 60 to 65 permanent full-time jobs and generate about $1.5 million in annual tax revenue.
Lorne Friberg, the president and CEO of Pacific Coast Terminals, said the facility is an investment in the community.
“The expansion of our operations allows for a greater contribution to the city of Port Moody in terms of new jobs, additional municipal taxes, and increased support to local community organizations and events,” Friberg said of his company’s biggest project in the 60 years its operated its Port Moody site.
Burkhard Lohr, the chair of K+S, said the opening of the PoMo storage and handling facility is the culmination of its legacy project that the company embarked upon five years ago that includes the first new potash mine in Saskatchewan’s potash belt in almost 50 years.
Lohr said the first load of potash from the mine arrived in Port Moody earlier this month.
Clay said that connection to Canada’s economy is important for the growth of Port Moody’s economy, noting, “As a small town, we don’t always get connected with what goes on across the country.”
Even if that connection comes with a giant green shed almost as long as three football fields?
“You barely notice the shed against the backdrop of the trees,” Clay said.
