Establishment of port authority explored: City considers integrating commercial transportation initiative via one of the busiest waterways in the world. (Sault Ste. Marie).

Though often lauded for its strategic location at the head of the Great Lakes, Sault Ste. Marie has never fully taken advantage of it by developing an integrated transportation system with water, road and rail links.

Now Mayor John Rowswell's new transportation committee believes it is high time to resurrect an old idea of establishing a self-supporting port authority by examing ways to acquire or gain access to Algoma Steel's deepwater export dock.

Despite the city's location on one of the busiest commercial waterways in the world, there is no access to an independent port or public dock facility with the seaway needed to accommodate a fully loaded Great Lakes or saltwater freighter.

However Algoma Steel Inc. (ASI) maintains a more than 700-foot dock on the upper St. Mary's River at Leigh's Bay with the required seaway depth of 28 feet, six inches.

A deep-water harbour has been talked about since the 1960s and 1970s by the city, but the project has never had legs beyond the study stage.

"This is not as big as past proposals," says Rowswell, outlining a proposal to build a dock facility from scratch.

"By scaling it down we need to have something universally available for the whole community for granulars, wood and steel products."

The suggestion that has come forth is for the city to be landholders of the property and source out its operation to accommodate both the city and Algoma Steel. The dock also comes with an existing rail spur running out from the plant, but it is considered by the steelmaker to be a private harbour.

Rail access was installed years ago through a joint effort of Algoma, the city and the economic development corporation.

A service road connects to the 24-hour truck route on Base Line Road.

The committee, made up of Rowswell, a city councillor and 11 citizens with transportation industry experience, regard the dock as the missing piece of the puzzle needed to tie together all the city's transportation needs. The proposed initiative could include warehousing, tugging capacity, a vessel agency service and independent stevedores.

They believe the potential business is there to ship bulk and value-added products such as lumber, logs, super-calendar paper, flake-board, strand-board, seamless tube pipe, granular slag and other aggregates.

"There's an opportunity for other industries to use the facility especially locally," says committee member Jeff Avery. "It opens doors for St. Marys Paper, Georgia-Pacific, Domtar and the logging industry in opening up different markets."

The committee further proposes a 100-acre site be acquired for intermodal services, including reload facilities.

The city has long coveted the purchase of nearby vacant lan, owned by Algoma Steel, west of the plant to convert into a full-service, heavy industrial park.

Algoma Steel has not stated publicly if it is receptive to selling the dock or allowing outside freight to move over their property, says Bruce Strapp, president and CEO of the Sault's Economic Development Corp.

He plans on arranging a meeting with ASI officials in the near future.

"No question, if Algoma had the opportunity to ensure their transportation needs were met in a competitive way and they could transfer that over to the private sector for someone else to run, manage and operate, that might be in their bailiwick," says Strapp.

With the council's endorsement, the next steps are for the EDC to open discussions with Algoma Steel, create and organize a port authority, then, seek opportunities for government funding.

Provincial funding from, the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines is available through a diversification program providing up to 75 per cent of a project's costs, up to $5 million.

Rowswell says a growth mandate diversification team made up of federal, provincial and city officials will review the suggestion and, if warranted, will move it on to the next phase to conduct a feasibility study and incorporate the project as part of the Sault's diversification strategy.

The deep-water dock is part of a larger effort by the transportation committee to brainstorm ideas to enhance opportunities to become a transportation hub through discussions centred around railway concerns, truck routes, their access to and from the International Bridge and developing transpolar air routes to Asia.