New President At Port Of Goderich Port Management Corporation Says They're Ready To Expand As Soon As They Get The Funding

by Bob Montgomery

Frank Hurkmans is the new President of the Goderich Port Management Corporation following the retirement of Rowland Howe.

Hurkmans says the original vision for the expansion of the port that took place in 2019 was to be about fifteen acres, but they weren't able to get the funding for the whole project so that expansion was limited to about four acres. The Tomlison Group is the tenant on that property. Hurkmans says they need about fifty million dollars in federal, provincial, and private funding to proceed with the roughly eleven acres that was part of the original proposal, and they're a little more than fifty percent of the way through the application process for that funding.

“The additional eleven acres will give us the opportunity for a much larger variety of bulk cargoes. That gives us the opportunity for some project cargoes if something were to take place with the new reactor at the Bruce Nuclear we'd be in a position to bring in project components for that facility and a multitude of other products that could come in.” As well, Midwestern Ontario has a huge agricultural footprint so there would be opportunities there for agricultural products like phosphates and potash and different products like that to come in and out. And the industry is always looking for places to store bulk materials, and Goderich is positioned very well as the only deep-water port on the eastern shore of Lake Huron to do that.

Hurkmans says the project is ready to go as soon as they get the funding.