Port of Johnstown to get $10 million in upgrades

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Eastern Ontario’s Port of Johnstown will see a $10.4 million infrastructure renewal and expansion to capitalize on growing and emerging markets for Canadian soybean, wheat and corn, and relieve inefficiencies and bottlenecks currently experienced at the port.

The federal government will foot $4.8 million of the bill through the National Trade Corridors Fund (NTCF) to modernize the port’s infrastructure to serve international markets from eastern Ontario and western Quebec. The total cost includes a matching investment by the Township of Edwardsburgh Cardinal, the owners of the port.

The funding will be used to:

  • Increase vessel loading efficiency by 60 per cent and storage by 10 per cent, alleviating wait-times;
  • Streamline the flow of products in and out of the port, reducing congestion; and
  • Enable the port to continue servicing international trading vessels.

“By replacing nine outdated grain-loading spouts that date back as early as the 1930s with four self-supporting, modern spouts and by increasing storage capacity, this investment will deliver vital improvements,” says general manager of the port, Robert Dalley.

“This is a good news story for the entire region and will greatly increase Canada’s ability to increase exports.”

The Port of Johnstown provides access to export markets for over 1,600 farms in eastern Ontario and western Quebec. The port also has access to CN and CP rail lines and is adjacent to the international Prescott-Ogdensburg bridge. The port receives grain from around the region and provides a range of grading, storage, cleaning and drying services in addition to loading vessels bound for overseas destinations.

In 2017, the port supported 357 jobs and generated $37.1 million in economic activity in Ontario.

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