The cause in question is the renovation of platform 17 and the construction of a new platform 16. Although the wait is longer than expected, the work should begin this fall, if all goes well.
“We have big projects to announce in the coming weeks,” assures Gaétan Boivin, President and CEO of the Trois-Rivières Port Authority.
The latter gave a similar speech during the welcoming ceremony for the first ship of the year 2024. However, he believes that this time will be the right one.
“There are always delays because of environmental studies and financial arrangements,” he explains.
But where there are works, there are inconveniences… In this case, the port’s storage space – which is already operating at full capacity – will be affected.
“It will have an impact on the quantity of goods we can handle and our income. But once you do it, it will definitely be worth it.”
— Gaétan Boivin, President and CEO of the Trois-Rivières Port Authority
Culture change
The senior manager also presented the results of the year 2023 during the annual general meeting of the Trois-Rivières Port Authority, Thursday morning. Remember that the port welcomed 272 ships in 2023 and 4.2 metric tons of goods, for a net profit of $4.15 million.
The Port Authority also organized the visit of two ships in the winter of 2023, namely the bulk carrier Ferbec which had been forced to winter in Trois-Rivières and the icebreaker NGCC Amundsen from the Canadian Coast Guard.
If the visits were appreciated by those who took advantage of them, and who had the opportunity to chat with members of the crew, it was a combination of circumstances, confides Mr. Boivin. There is therefore no risk of making it a tradition.
The port CEO is also pleased with the pooling of research efforts by the province’s ports, which has been recognized by the creation of the Centre of Expertise in Port Logistics. This aims to enable researchers, ports and businesses to conduct various projects to address the challenges that many of them are experiencing or may experience in the future.
“We need to transform the culture in ports. We must move from a sometimes conservative culture to a culture of innovation. This is what we have done in recent years and it has allowed us to work on around forty research projects. We were at the stage of creating such a center. It’s a way of pooling resources and doing more than if we worked individually on the same issues. It allows us to go further,” argues Mr. Boivin.
Decarbonization, still a priority
The port of Trois-Rivières has already started to tackle its impact on the environment, in the strategic plan Heading towards 2020, a trend which has continued with its successor, Heading towards 2030. However, it will be necessary to include in the provides the benefits of new technologies, believes Gaétan Boivin.
“We saw the importance of ports during COVID. Everything closed, even airports, but the ports remained open. So we have an extremely important role to play and we have a lot of work to do in decarbonization in the years to come. We are moving towards digitalization, artificial intelligence and it is in our best interest, in ports, to get started on it right away. The future is not in infrastructure, but in knowledge, digitalization, supply chains, decarbonization and the environment,” he says.
It is also this concern to reduce the carbon footprint of the maritime industry that has led to the strategy developed by the Port Authority and Innovation and Economic Development (IDE) Trois-Rivières to accommodate cruise ships being revised. While prospecting for ships to bring to Trois-Rivières was the responsibility of IDE, the port is now more involved.
“We’re going to get a little more involved. We’ve also been clear about the type of ship we want: we want cleaner ships. We’re not about numbers, we’re looking for quality. We did some studies to see what cruise ships were going towards, we were looking for lines that were recognized for their environment. There weren’t really any, but it’s starting to take shape,” explains Mr. Boivin.
While he believes there is still work to be done to encourage more cruise passengers to leave the deck of their ship to enjoy the city centre, he applauds the efforts made by IDE to make Trois-Rivières an attractive destination.
“The Trois-Rivières destination is very, very well rated among cruise passengers,” rejoices the CEO of the Port Authority.
Remember that in 2023, 28 cruise ships called at Trois-Rivières, with 7,000 passengers and 5,000 crew members. In 2024, 30 such stopovers were planned, but four were canceled between June 1 and 19, according to the IDE Trois-Rivières website dedicated to tourism.
