Ottawa is giving $225,000 to the Port Alberni Port Authority to study the potential of building a short sea port facility in the Alberni Inlet on Vancouver Island.
Unlike a deep sea port – ports that receive and unload large ships – a short sea facility is designed to handle small vessels that travel short distances.
Currently, all cargo received by Port Metro Vancouver is loaded onto trains or trucks and transported to various warehouses and distribution centres in the Lower Mainland.
If a short sea port were built in the Alberni Inlet, cargo destined for warehouses on the Fraser River, for instance, could be delivered by small vessels or barges instead, reducing the amount of trucks needed to move goods.
Zoran Knezevic, CEO of the Port Alberni port Authority, told Business in Vancouver that the study will begin in the next two weeks and take at least six months to complete.
“This is significant for us and the broader community,” said Knezevic.
“The federal government has trusted us with this money to see if this work is feasible.”
