Funding kickstarts plans for deep-sea port in Sault Ste. Marie

An effort to bring a deep-sea port to Sault Ste. Marie just got a major push forward, with support from the federal government Wednesday.

It’s a project decades in the making, and the latest move will help guide the work ahead.

Sault MP Terry Sheehan said more than $400,000 from the Transport Canada’s Green Shipping Corridor Program will allow the Sault to craft a study and assess the possibility of building a deep-sea port. (Supplied)

More than $400,000 from the Transport Canada’s Green Shipping Corridor Program will allow the Sault to craft a study and assess the possibility of building a deep-sea port.

"The Americans right now are creating a super lock," said Sault MP Terry Sheehan.

"So what the deep sea port does is it's able to accommodate large ships that are transporting so much. Shipping goes by here without stopping here. But this would be a tremendous amount of opportunities for ships to come in and out."

"It's an opportunity for Sault Ste. Marie to grow in many areas that would help us," added Don Mitchell of the Sault Chamber of Commerce

"It's good for the lumber industry, it's good for aggregate, it's good for the steel industry. It's good for a number of things. And we've been at this now … for 30, 35 years."

The idea of a deep-sea port in the Sault has been kicked around for decades, most recently in 2015.

"The last time the plans were developed, you know, they were rather grandiose," said Mayor Matthew Shoemaker.

"This time the focus is going to be on ensuring that we have a realistic development, whether that's one slip, whether that's two slips, and something that can be built within, you know, the next short horizon."

The most likely location for the port is where there is already port access -- and where the majority of its use is expected to come from.

• Download the CTV News app now
• Get local breaking news alerts
• Daily newsletter with the top local stories emailed to your inbox

"This will require Algoma Steel's participation at some point, either as a partner or, as, you know, a vendor of a certain chunk of land to us," Shoemaker said.

"This is (one of the) things that the study will look at. And fortunately, the work that was done a decade ago on this will be able to be built off of."

Shoemaker expects the study will be complete in the next 12-15 months. After that, the city would need to lobby for funding to get the job started as quickly as possible.

He said he’d like to see work on the port beginning in three to five years.