Posted on July 20, 2017
By Denis Langlois, Sun Times, Owen Sound
The city is planning to dive deeper into analyzing the condition of the federally owned Owen Sound harbour as it continues port divestiture talks with Transport Canada.
City manager Wayne Ritchie said the federal agency has agreed to cover the costs for the city to obtain a more detailed examination of the harbour by environmental engineers from Oakville-based Pollutech Group as well as an eco-toxicity study by Trent University.
“This will help council and the public to understand – can we operate the port as a mixed-use port and, if so, what is it going to cost us today and into the future?” Ritchie said in an interview before the start of Monday’s city council meeting.
“If we assume the port, we will be assuming it for the foreseeable future, so we need to make sure we have enough funds to do that in the appropriate manner.”
The studies, he said, will also give council information on the cost to dredge the harbour as well as any potential impacts of dredging on the local ecosystem.
“The first step is to say, can that port be dredged in an environmentally friendly manner? That’s probably the main question around that issue. And, if so, what would that (entail) and what would the cost of it be?” he said.
Owen Sound began lobbying the federal government in 2001 to pay for dredging the harbour to assist commercial shipping activities. The government’s position has been that dredging must be linked with divestiture.
In 2015, Transport Canada launched a new program for selling and divesting many of its ports.
The federally owned inner harbour in Owen Sound was one of 50 listed as available under the Ports Asset Transfer Program. The local port, the agency says, includes a 1,241-metre west harbour wall and 1,143-m east harbour wall.
City council voted in early 2016 to notify Transport Canada that the city does not want to buy the harbour, but is interested in participating in divestiture talks.
A few months later, the city signed a disclosure of information agreement with Transport Canada, which allowed the city to begin the divestiture phase of the Ports Asset Transfer Program.
Ritchie said the city has been in divestiture negotiations with Transport Canada since January.
At Monday night’s meeting, council voted to authorize the mayor and clerk to sign an agreement with Transport Canada that will see the agency covering 100 per cent of the costs, up to $117,475, for the additional studies the city wants completed.
Divestiture talks related to the Owen Sound harbour have taken place on and off for several years.
In 2007, Owen Sound signed an agreement with Transport Canada to discuss the possibility of the city taking over the port.
Four years later, the city announced that it had chosen not to seek ownership due to the risks and liability that were identified and because “the city is not in a position to operate a port given the specific expertise required.”
Next Parrish & Heimbecker, owner of the Owen Sound grain elevators, entered into divestiture negotiations with Transport Canada. Those talks also broke off without an agreement in 2013. A reason was not given by the company due to non-disclosure agreements.
Environmental condition reports, released by Transport Canada in late 2014 after the city sought the documents under a freedom of information request, revealed that contaminants, including metals and inorganics, were found at levels exceeding Ministry of the Environment regulatory standards in the harbour’s sediment and federally owned land around the port.
Source: owensound suntimes
