Don Krusel's blue prints taking root in Quebec City

Former Port of Prince Rupert CEO
and President Don Krusel is finding
some progress with his latest project
the expansion plans for the Port
of Quebec City

For a guy that had "retired" Don Krusel is certainly making his mark in Eastern Canada, with more interest starting to stir for a container terminal for the Quebec capital.

As we outlined last year, the former Port of Prince Rupert CEO and President took on a new challenge in the east, when he was appointed as project manager for an ambitious expansion plan in Quebec City known as Beauport 2020.

While the Port of Prince Rupert was relaying some of their latest findings on Monday when it comes to the "port that Don built" as part of their Annual Public Meeting ... the architect's work in Quebec City was delivering some strong results five provinces to the east.

On Thursday, an industry trade publication called The Loadstar, charted some of the growing interest in new port facilities on the St. Lawrence River, noting how the Port of Quebec is looking to become a container gateway for cargo coming to Canada and the US midwest and beyond.

Something which of course sounds pretty familiar for North Coast residents, going back to the days when Mr. Krusel was the Fuller Brush Salesman of port development for Prince Rupert across Northern British Columbia and beyond.

Like Prince Rupert, the Quebec plans will start small with a joint venture with CN Rail and a port operator Hutchison Ports looking to move forward the plan for a 500,000 TEU capacity terminal, Hutchison's involvement is considered a major get, as the terminal operator has a network spanning 52 ports in 27 countries.

The main focus for import/export out of the Quebec City facility will be trade with Asia and a look at their map with an eastern trade route, makes for almost a mirror image of how the Port of Prince Rupert flow of cargo moves from the west coast.

Should it make it to the construction phase, a new container  port
in Quebec City will bring trade into the US South from the
Quebec capital

The advocates for the port development are still looking to get the provincial and federal governments to kick in some cash, who so far haven't dipped into their respective treasuries to move the project forward. 

Though political observers  from the Quebec capital suggest that it's only a matter of time before the provincial government may come on board, something which also would most likely spur the Federal government to action as well.

Still, the involvement of a major terminal operator has many in Quebec City bullish, with the proponents of the port pointing to the success that their project manager Don Krusel had in Prince Rupert, with hopes that the Rupert blue print will have similar results.

A look at the initial community engagement work for the project can be found here, while a wider overview of the Quebec City plans is available here.

Quebec City came up in passing at Monday's Port of Prince Rupert Annual Public Meeting, with Prince Rupert still holding down the number three spot in the intermodal business, however the Eastern Canadian port at the mouth of the St. Lawrence River finished 2018 slightly ahead of Prince Rupert in total tonnage.

The Port of Quebec City currently has a slight lead over the
Port Of Prince Rupert in Total tonnage shipped

That's a hold on cargo shipments Quebec City will no doubt like to build on if Don Krusel's container program gets to the finish line.

For more items of interest related to the Port of Prince Rupert see our archive page here.