Powell River Regional District rural directors support a study to investigate the feasibility of a deepwater port on Texada Island.
At the January 25 rural services committee meeting, directors agreed to allocate $20,000 from the economic development service to Powell River Regional Economic Development Society (PRREDS). The funds will be used to hire a transportation specialist to compile a business case for a deepwater port and distribution centre on Texada Island.
Scott Randolph, PRREDS manager, had made a presentation to the committee in December requesting the funds.
Randolph told the Peak that Texada has always been identified as a possibility for a port that would act as a distribution point to the North American marketplace because of the deep water that surrounds the island and the availability of affordable land. “We’ve looked at it and we think there’s a business case evolving,” he said.
West Coast ports are reaching a saturation point, Randolph added. “We know there are lands along the Fraser River, for example, that are more valuable for other types of development than warehousing and distribution. We also know there are cases where ships will come into port and sit there for two to three days waiting to be off-loaded, which costs quite a bit of money for those shipping companies.”
PRREDS has looked at several potential sites on Texada, Randolph said, including Lafarge property on the east side of the island, south of Van Anda. Randolph said there is another potential site on the east side of the island and another one on the west side, but he said he had to keep the locations confidential. “The Lafarge one is the one we think has the best potential,” he said. “We’ll be having discussions with that company to see whether there’s some interest there.”
PRREDS plans on issuing a request for proposals looking for a transportation specialist to put together “all the numbers and the business case on it, so we can go out and sell it.”
The society needs $50,000 for the study, Randolph said, and he had asked the regional district to contribute half the cost.
Directors also had requests from Tourism Powell River for $15,000 and Powell River Academy of Music for $15,000 for the Symphony Orchestra Academy of the Pacific (SOAP).
There is $45,000 available in 2011 for economic development and directors passed a motion to allocate $20,000 to PRREDS and $12,500 each to Tourism Powell River and SOAP.
Dave Murphy, Texada Island director, spoke in favour of the business plan, saying he thought the idea of a distribution centre was “a winner.” He said he has heard positive comments about the idea from the community.
