‘We just need the money’: Goderich pushes for port expansion amidst push for ‘nation building projects’

Believing the expansion would help southwestern Ontario, officials push for multi-million-dollar port expansion. CTV London’s Scott Miller has more.

Tourists are enjoying the last bits of summer along Goderich’s waterfront, but it’s what’s on the other side of Goderich’s harbour that’s brought a room full of experts to the shoreline town.

“The industry on the other side of the harbour, we have 2,500 jobs all together with all the industry there, which people don’t know, high paying jobs. And we want to obviously expand on our port if we can,” said Goderich’s Mayor, Trevor Bazinet.

Goderich’s Port sees about 200 ships each year, shipping salt, grain and wheat around the world, and receiving shipments of gravel and aggregates.

Following a 2018 expansion that saw four acres filled in to create new docks and port land, there’s an appetite to see an additional 11 acres of Lake Huron filled in with rock and stone to create even more docks and land to expand Goderich’s Port even further.

The price tag: $50 million.

“I am on weekly calls with different funding groups in regards to understand which bucket of money that can come from, both from a provincial perspective and a federal perspective. To me, as President of the Goderich Port Management Corporation, it doesn’t matter. We just need the money. We are ready to go,” said Frank Hurkmans, President of the Goderich Port Management Corporation, which manages Goderich’s Port on behalf of the town.

Port experts from around the Great Lakes recently stopped in Goderich to talk about that proposed expansion at the Huron Chamber of Commerce’s Economic and Marine Forum.

Hurkmans says every ship that comes through Goderich’s port, or any port, effectively takes 600 trucks off the already clogged roadways.

“If there’s a chance to take trucks off the road by using the water more efficiently, that’s good for our environment. And so, I think it really is a win, win, win, if we can make projects like this happen,” said Daniel Tisch, President of the Ontario Chamber of Commerce, who was a keynote speaker at the Huron Economic and Marine Forum.

As both the federal and provincial governments battle U.S. tariffs and talk about funding “nation building” projects, proponents of Goderich’s port expansion are trying to push their project to the front of the line for consideration.

“If the time isn’t right now, I don’t know when it will be,” said Hurkmans.

Hurkmans says, in the meantime, the Goderich Port Management Corporation will spend $3.5 million to build a 50,000 thousand square foot bulk storage building.

While they await federal and provincial cash to build, what they really want to see is a new 11 acres of port land they hope could be ready to receive new cargo by 2028.

“This is a regional port. So, that’s why these conversations are happening. Let’s work together. Let’s collaborate together, and make it happen,” said Mayor Bazinet.