CIB to invest in Indigenous-led port logistics facility

The Canada Infrastructure Bank (CIB) reached financial close on a C$60.7 million loan to help the Metlakatla Development Corp. and the Prince Rupert Port Authority develop the Indigenous-led South Kaien Import Logistics Park in British Columbia.

Funding comes from the CIB's Indigenous Community Infrastructure Initiative and will be used for site infrastructure needed to develop 56 acres of flat, serviced land in proximity to Fairview Terminal, CN and the recently announced CANXPORT facility, according to a CIB press release.

More than half of the logistics park is leased for a logistics and warehousing complex which significantly expands and strengthens import transloading and related capabilities at the Port of Prince Rupert. The remaining 23 acres are available for lease.

Most of the site preparation work is expected to be completed in two years. A subsequent phase will entail private sector investment building transloading and warehousing infrastructure.

Those projects will create about 100,000 20-foot-equivalent units of capacity to transload marine containers into domestic 53-foot containers.

The investment is the CIB's second in a port. In May 2024, CIB announced a C$150-million loan to help build the CANXPORT export logistics hub at another site at the Port of Prince Rupert.