http://www.leaderpost.com/business/H...209/story.html
High hopes for the Hub
By Bruce Johnstone, Leader-Post October 4, 2009
Work is progressing on a 500,000-square-foot, $200-million distribution centre near Regina's western boundary.
Photograph by: Don Healy, Leader-Post, Leader-Post
The Global Transportation Hub (GTH) isn't some sort of 'field of dreams, build-it-and-they-will-come' fantasy, according to Wayne Elhard, chairman of the GTH.
"This project has the potential to really transform the way we do transportation in this province,'' said the former Highways and Infrastructure minister, who was appointed to head the GTH in June.
In fact, Elhard believes the GTH will be as important to Saskatchewan in the 21st century as the railroad was for the province in the 20th century.
"I think this project could be of equal importance to the future of Saskatchewan's transportation as the coming of the railway was in the 1880s,'' the Cypress Hills MLA said in a recent interview with the Leader-Post.
That's a tall order to be sure, but Elhard has his reasons for making this admittedly "grandiose" prediction for the GTH.
The GTH, for the uninitiated, is the name of the massive transportation infrastructure project being developed in the city's west end, incorporating rail, truck and potentially air cargo facilities, along with large-scale distribution centres.
CP Rail got the ball rolling last year when it officially announced its intention to relocate its existing intermodal facility (IMF) from downtown Regina to a location five kilometres west of the city. The intermodal facility transfers shipping containers from train to truck, increasing the efficiency of transporting goods across the continent.
The $93-million IMF project became the impetus for Loblaw Companies Ltd. -- Canada's largest food distributor and CP Rail's biggest customer -- to announce the construction of a $200-million, 500,000 square-foot distribution centre near the CP intermodal facility in July 2008.
The project, which would employ up to 750 people in two years, would be the first phase in a one-million-square-foot, $350-million distribution and warehouse facility that would employ up to 1,500 by 2017.
With 1,400 trucks per week using the Loblaw facility, the roads and highways around the intermodal facility and distribution centre would have to be upgraded and expanded.
The infrastructure project, which would include a new overpass at the Trans-Canada Highway and Lewvan Drive and a connector road from the Trans-Canada to Highway 11, will cost the province about $45 million.
Those two projects and the related infrastructure would result in an investment of close to half a billion dollars. But that's just the beginning, Elhard says.
As our transportation and distribution systems integrate and increase in speed and efficiency, the potential to move goods, not just east and west, but north and south, becomes much greater.
"We can take goods from China and send them to the Gulf of Mexico in a fairly quick time line. That's where our opportunity is,'' Elhard says.
In fact, Regina's GTH stands at the northern crossroads of this evolving continental transportation network. "Being a land-locked province was seen as a disadvantage for 150 years. Now it's a positive attribute.''
"That's why we think this Global Transportation Hub ... presents such great potential."
John Law, deputy minister of Highways and Infrastructure, says the growth of Asia as both consumer and producer of goods for the North American market has given added impetus to the GTH.
"There's a strong interest in trying to make improvements to the Asia-Pacific Gateway and Corridor, which accounts for a lot of the incoming traffic ... We're interested in how we can get access to move our stuff back the other way.''
That's why the province, the City of Regina and CP Rail were able to negotiate $27 million from the federal government in December 2007 as its share of the $93-million IMF.
The IMF, in turn, attracted Loblaw, which was looking to expand its presence in the growing Western Canadian market, as well as taking some of its products "off of the road'' and reducing its fuel costs and environmental footprint.
"When they looked at us strategically, (Loblaw) recognized that our location was preferable to other locations in terms of where we are in North America,'' Law said.
Of course, when private sector companies are prepared to invest multi-millions of dollars in logistics infrastructure in Saskatchewan, the province needed to step up to the plate.
"Whereas we had some plans that were probably 15 years out, in terms of the infrastructure investments ... Loblaw was ready to go in about 18 months. They were talking about 1,500 new jobs, a couple of hundred million in new investment ... We recognized we needed to be in a position to respond," Law said..
"We went from the original estimate of $28 million to $168 million in new transportation infrastructure.''
Mayor Pat Fiacco said getting the GTH project off the ground required co-operation and participation from all three levels of government, as well as the private sector.
"A project of this magnitude, there's no way that a municipal government could advance this on their own. There's no way a provincial government could do it on their own. This was true collaboration."
Fiacco said CP Rail, which had outgrown its existing container yards on Dewdney Avenue, was receptive to incorporating the relocation of the IMF with the Asia-Pacific Gateway concept.
Larry Hiles, president and CEO of the Regina Regional Opportunities Commission (RROC), agreed the collaboration of all three levels of government was critical in getting the private sector partners on board for the GTH project.
"It's not a formal P3, but it has a lot of the aspects of a public private partnership,'' Hiles said.
"How everybody approached this challenge and opportunity really helped us move this project forward quickly.''
Hiles said Regina's central geographic location, the confluence of the CP mainline and Soo Lines, two major highways (Trans-Canada and Highway 11) and proximity to skilled labour in Regina and Moose Jaw were the key factors in siting the GTH near Regina.
"The GTH is located in the Regina-Moose Jaw corridor, which has 25 per cent of the labour force of Saskatchewan, roughly 25 per cent of the GDP of the province, tremendous access to all the utilities,'' Hiles said. "There's all kinds of reasons to put more than just a railway facility there. There's all kinds of reasons why other industries would want to be there."
Hiles said Regina has most, if not all, of the things companies look for to site or relocate their business operations, including transportation infrastructure, cost of labour and cost of doing business. "We rank very high in all those things.''
In fact, Hiles said the GTH will attract complementary businesses -- transportation service and supply companies, trucking firms, warehouses and distribution centres, manufacturing plants and assembly operations.
"We've always wanted to build the case that the companies would want to be here because it's the best choice they could make, not because there was some kind of incentive,'' Hiles added.
"That's what we wanted and I think we're well on the way to having that happen.''
In fact, Hiles believes the GTH could attract more than $1 billion-investment in the area in the next five or six years. In the longer term, the sky's the limit.
"What started out as a relatively good idea is maturing into a big idea and it's moving really quick,'' Elhard said.
"It's like a runaway freight train.''
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