Bumper wheat crop keeps port humming.

• Author: Ross, Ian

hwider Bay harbour has taken on the look of a parking lot this year.

With last year's backlog of wheat still being pushed through the western Lake Superior port, it's not common to see a half-dozen freighters riding at anchor waiting their turn for cargo at the waterfront grain elevators.

The calendar had barely turned the page to November when the port authority announced it had already surpassed last year's tonnage totals.

The authority measured 6.3 million tonnes pushed through the waterfront grain elevators, almost a million more than last year's final totals.

As of October 31, grain shipments were reported to be 73 per cent higher than the same time last year.

For the sixth consecutive month, grain shipments of wheat and canola hit a monthly 17-year high with more than 850,000 tonnes shipped.

"We're still predicting about eight million (tonnes) in grain." said port authority CEO Tim Heney, in making his yearend forecast over the final two months as the Great Lakes shipping season draws to a close.

Much of those swollen totals can be attributed to last year's bumper grain crop on the Western Canadian prairies.

In an average year, Heney said, the previous year's crop clears the port by late summer, but this fall Thunder Bay elevators were simultaneously handling the remainder of last year's crop, plus this year's more modest, but still healthy, harvest.

Last spring, the huge crop caught many grain haulers and rail carriers off-guard, and was exacerbated by a severe winter which hampered the movement of grain to port. It prompted the federal government to order the railways to move grain faster or face stiff fines on a weekly basis.

-There are still some delays," said Heney, "but overall Thunder Bay benefitted from the (federal) orders to move it. It was the easiest place (for shippers) to go to comply"

The high volumes presented a great opportunity to showcase the port. Heney said, but they've been...