Transportation

By Carol Dobson

In Conversation with Joyce Carter

It’s not a huge flight of fancy to compare Joyce Carter, the president and CEO of the Halifax International Airport Authority to the mayor of any medium-sized town in Nova Scotia.

“We have 5,600 employees, or roughly the population of Kentville,” Carter tells The Notebook.

By Andrew Macdonald

The Port of Halifax is worried its international shipping reputation could be damaged because of blockades of CN Rail’s tracks in Ontario.

Lane Farguson, spokesman for the local port authority which oversees the two container terminal operations in Halifax Harbour, warns an inability to move cargo will see shipping lines divert to competing ports such as New York, perhaps permanently.

“Once cargo routes are altered, it is difficult, and sometimes impossible, to restore them,” Farguson tells The Notebook.

The blockades on the main CN Rail line are a show of solidarity for the Wet’suwet’en First Nation, whose hereditary chiefs oppose the construction of a 670-kilometre natural gas pipeline through northern British Columbia.

Halifax’s port is seen as a ‘discretionary port’ because it has a smaller population catchment area than ports in New York and Montreal, both of which are closer to consumers.

By Andrew Macdonald

With the CN Rail blockade continuing near Belleville, Ont., the Port of Halifax over the last two weeks has been unable to process export or import cargo.

Cargo from Ontario and the U.S. Midwest has not been able to move on CN’s Eastern Canadian network because of the rail blockade, and import cargo from Southeast Asia and Europe can’t be processed in Halifax and delivered to customers.

Until now, Atlantic Container Line (ACL) has maintained calls here, but company CEO Andy Abbott told The Notebook this week that two of its ships, Atlantic Sail and Atlantic Star, will bypass Halifax on their way to Europe from New York.

By Andrew Macdonald

A tree cutting contract valued at $171,138 on the next part of the 103 HWY to be constructed between the Ingramport interchange and Hubbards has been awarded to Wagner Forest NS Ltd.

There were a total of four bids for the tree clearing contract received.

N.R. Kenney Logging Ltd., submitted a bid of $283,800; R. Maclean Forestry Ltd., quoted $270,726; Nova Hydroseeding & Erosion Control bid $224,800.

By Andrew Macdonald

A shipping customer in the Port of Halifax since 1970, Atlantic Container Line (ACL) has resolved its on time delivery schedule times in Halifax and other U.S. East Coast port of calls – a five year problem related to the delivery over that period of next generation container roll on/roll off vessels.

That’s the word from New York based ACL CEO, Andy Abbott.

“ACL’s schedule performance has been lousy for five years as we fixed the teething problems on our new ships”, the shipping exec tells The Notebook.