Halifax Faces Uphill Battle for More Container Cargo

Halifax Faces Uphill Battle for More Container Cargo, Dal’s Brooks Warns
(Halifax Chronicle Herald)

There is no quick fix, says Mary Brooks.

Attracting more cargo and shipping lines to the Port of Halifax won’t happen overnight.

Container cargo through the port is expected to be down six to eight per cent in 2007 compared with 2006, and Ms. Brooks, the William A. Black chair of commerce at Dalhousie University, says building more container cargo through the port is a complex matter.

"Part of it is the fact we are a discretionary port. We need to hope going forward that we can change a lot of people’s minds about us being more than second choice."

Maersk Line’s decision last year to leave Halifax is something "the port is not going to be able to do anything about," Ms. Brooks said in a recent interview. "Maersk made a global decision about how it was going to offer its services to the global market place, so we were a casualty along with a lot of other parties. We are not like a New York where people feel they have to call because there is a huge population base and it is going to be difficult to serve otherwise."

A noted transportation expert, Ms. Brooks says Halifax has many features but points out that sometimes "Maritimers are their own worst enemy."

"We don’t always see the brighter side of everything. But we have got a number of things actually working in our favour that have long-term prospects."

She pointed to the warehouse opened in 2007 in Dartmouth by Consolidated Fastfrate, a similar facility to be built by the Armour Group and a transloading facility likely to be built by CN next to the Fairview Cove container terminal.

"These things if they hit that tipping point where they make the decision to make the investment, then you have even more that is saleable, but it is going to be a very tough marketing slog," she said. "It is not just marketing by the port; it is everybody sharpening their pencils and figuring out how to extract the cost out of the system to make us look a lot better."

But cost is only part of the equation, she said.

Ms. Brooks, who has written extensively on marine transportation issues, said she would like to see the province "focus on making the Halifax gateway work better." But she acknowledged that other ports like Sydney and Canso are also looking for something, which "just dilutes the effort."

"It looks like we in Atlantic Canada have not gotten our act together."

In October, Atlantic premiers and the federal government signed a memorandum of understanding to work together to develop the Atlantic Gateway as an entry and exit region for international trade.

Ms. Brooks sees that process as the premiers looking for money and "it is more than about money."

"I get disturbed when I see that people think if you throw money at it, it is going to solve everything."

Putting money into a new container port in Prince Rupert, B.C., was a good move for both the federal and provincial governments, she said, because there were also private investors wanting to deal with the cargo/ship congestion problem in Vancouver.

"Vancouver was getting difficult and the opportunity was really strong," she said. "But it isn’t always about pouring money into things. It is sometimes about the softer things you need to take care of."

Ms. Brooks has recently received an academic study on global cargo that she feels plays toward Halifax’s strengths.

The study, she said, shows that reliability is a major issue for companies with cargo interests because of port congestion, "and there we are part of the solution as opposed to part of the problem."