Port Saint John is one of Canada’s largest ports and a major trade gateway on the Bay of Fundy in New Brunswick, handling containerized, bulk, break-bulk, and cruise traffic. The port supports regional and international commerce while serving as a key transportation and logistics hub for Atlantic Canada.
As someone who was born and raised in Saint John and still calls the city home, you've had a front-row seat to its evolution. When you compare the city today to the one you grew up in, what stands out most?
When I was growing up, the thinking was that you could continue your education locally, but for your career, you needed to go elsewhere for employment and maybe come back later in life to enjoy the coastal living and scenery.
I remember looking out the windows of my high school at the port and not really knowing what a port did. If you had asked me 22 years ago, I would have spoken about it in the past tense. Today, it is a transformed community. We have international operators like DP World, a temperature-controlled facility with Americold, two cruise terminals, dry bulk exports including potash, and a major refinery importing crude oil and exporting refined petroleum. It's a much more diverse business.
While many Canadians know Saint John as a historic coastal city, fewer appreciate the scale and strategic importance of the port that sits at its heart. How would you explain Port Saint John's role in the regional, national and global economy?
Port authorities have a national role, but they also have a major impact on their local communities and provincial economies. The federal government began acquiring critical wharves and piers more than 100 years ago because it understood the importance of trade infrastructure and national connectivity.
Saint John was well positioned because of its rail connections, and today we're one of 17 Canadian Port Authorities. We're heavily regulated by the federal government and operate on Crown land, but function as a commercial enterprise. It's a shared governance model with commercial responsibilities and regulatory obligations around safety and vessel movement.
When you arrived at Port Saint John in 2011, what convinced you that a major modernization effort was needed, and how challenging was it to secure support for that vision?
The assets that DP World now operates were vastly underutilized. It wasn't really a growth case; it was an infrastructure case. We had aging terminals built for a different era, a small container terminal that couldn't be expanded or deepened, and facilities that no longer met customer needs. We kept hearing that Saint John had great marine history and geographic advantages. The question became: why did this work for 100 years, why doesn't it work today, and what infrastructure would attract private-sector investment?
We started developing that vision in 2012, pitched to the government in 2014 and secured funding in 2016. The diagnosis was simple: we had an infrastructure problem, not a geographic problem. Once the Government of Canada, the Province of New Brunswick and the Port Authority committed to the project, private-sector partners came in. DP World made the investments above ground, including equipment and cranes, CPKC and shortline New Brunswick Southern Railway made significant investments in rail, while the public investment focused on creating the wharf infrastructure itself.
How do you assess the current moment for Canada with its renewed focus on infrastructure, trade and investment?
This is a brand-new world. We completed the infrastructure, but then came the pandemic, supply chain disruptions, tariffs and geopolitical conflicts. During the pandemic, people suddenly understood how important ports were because they could see the impacts on store shelves and the cost of goods.
That awareness has only increased. The discussion around tariffs elevated the importance of supply chains even further. Today, Canada is looking at how to diversify trade and use its coastal assets to strengthen both Atlantic and Pacific connections while continuing significant north-south trade.
As Canada works to reduce its reliance on any single market and expand its global trading relationships, where do you see the greatest opportunities for Port Saint John to contribute?
Trade diversification is clearly a priority. Canada will always trade with the United States, but many exporters are interested in developing additional markets and options.
Saint John is positioned on the far eastern coast of North America, making transatlantic trade particularly important. We also have strong connections to Latin America and the Caribbean. Agri-food exports are significant for us, including frozen French fries, which are a major Maritime export. Many exporters still rely heavily on the U.S. market, but increasingly want access to places like Antwerp and Rotterdam as additional gateways to global markets.
You often speak about ports, rail and roads as one integrated supply chain. Why is that so difficult in practice?
The challenge is the number of participants. Freight forwarders, shipping lines, terminals, port authorities, rail companies and trucking firms all play a role. If one part of the system struggles, the entire supply chain can unravel quickly, which is what we saw during the pandemic. Today there are also major geopolitical disruptions. The Suez Canal has been largely disrupted for more than 1,000 days, and critical trade routes such as the Strait of Hormuz remain enormously important for everything from critical minerals to oil and gas.
Our philosophy is that we cannot control everything. We can't control global events, cargo surges or trade disruptions. What we can control is ensuring infrastructure is in place for the next 50 to 100 years. In 2015, we handled roughly 50,000 to 60,000 TEUs. Last year, we were well over 200,000 and approaching 240,000. To support continued growth, we're working on inland rail improvements, addressing transportation bottlenecks, pursuing grade separations and continuing to deepen our harbour. Ships keep getting larger, and we need infrastructure that can accommodate them.
As you think about the next five years, what are you working toward when you picture Port Saint John at its best?
The biggest opportunity is awareness and customer satisfaction. Many people still don't know who we are or where we're located, so we spend a lot of time explaining our position in eastern North America and highlighting partners like DP World, CPKC,CN, and Americold.
Our goal is to build awareness, maintain customer satisfaction and ensure infrastructure stays ahead of customer needs. A world-class port starts with strong berth infrastructure, natural deep-water access and the ability to accommodate vessels safely and efficiently.
It means modern equipment, electrified fleets, efficient layouts and seamless truck access with minimal congestion. But ultimately, it's the workforce that makes ports successful. When you combine great people with the best equipment, that's where the real advantage comes from.
