With financial support from both the federal and provincial governments, a favourable report from the Canadian Impact Assessment Agency, and a Ministerial Decision Statement allowing the project to proceed, the Port of Montreal’s Contrecoeur expansion is now taking another step closer to becoming operational. The Montreal Port Authority (MPA) is preparing to launch a Design-Build-Finance-Operate-Maintain (DBFOM) procurement process that will be open to national and international industry players.

A request for qualification (RFQ) will first qualify a number of national and international consortia that, over the next few months, will be invited to submit a proposal to enter into a long-term DBFOM agreement for the future terminal. Operators who took part in the exclusive preliminary discussions are invited to take part in the forthcoming steps of the process.

Interested companies and consortia will need to demonstrate their technical expertise, financial soundness and knowledge of container market development. The conditions specified in the Decision Statement issued by the Minister of Environment and Climate Change Canada must also be respected.

Upon completion, the Contrecoeur container terminal will be equipped to handle 1.15m teu.