Relocating the barge terminal facility to Townsite proved to be a trickier proposition than expected. City of Powell River officials learned a great deal along the way and eventually made the right decision to keep the facility in public hands.
At first, city staff thought the barge facility could be relocated to either infrastructure owned by Catalyst Paper Corporation or to property leased from Catalyst by another company. When neither of those locations worked, staff asked the major user of the facility, City Transfer Inc., to build a temporary ramp on property the city had leased from Catalyst. It also had to arrange permission from Catalyst for vehicles to come and go through its property.
The cost of building a replacement ramp turned out to be more than the city had anticipated, which led to negotiations with City Transfer. These discussions resulted in an agreement for the city to lease the ramp from City Transfer and for City Transfer to operate the barge facility. Meanwhile, city officials continue to search for a permanent solution, which involves negotiations with other companies. It remains to be seen how long those discussions will take and how much the move will cost in the end.
For an isolated community like Powell River, the barge facility is a vital transportation link. The federal government ran it until Transport Canada transferred it to the city, along with the tanker wharf, in 1999. It provides hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenues each year. In 2009, the city realized $191,865 from it.
The revenues are one good reason for the barge terminal to remain a public facility. Another reason is other users, as well as the public, can be assured it will be run in a fair and transparent manner.
City council is to be commended for bringing the matter forward to an open meeting and providing the information behind this complex agreement. The discussion belongs in the public realm. Thousands of dollars of public money is at play and taxpayers have the right to know the details of the relocation and how the move affected city revenues.
