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Ports in peril: Part 1A
Shifting sand, politics cast Port Stanley adrift in uncharted waters

Chip Martin Sun Media

May 16, 2008

PORT STANLEY -- The big boats don't stop here any more. They may never again.

Chip Martin Dan McNeil, a retired rear-admiral living in Port Stanley, has unearthed more than 800 pages of documents related to the Port Stanley divestiture talks. He is shown in a room, modelled after the bridge of a ship, in his new home overlooking the lake. The captain's chair, a gift when he retired, came from the HMCS Nipigon. (SUE REEVE/Sun Media)

The top hat awarded every year to the first skipper in "Port" sits in the municipal safe, awaiting the arrival of a shipping season that's unlikely to open.

As a port, Port Stanley has changed. And without a port in its heart and in its name, it may simply become just Stanley.

The Lake Erie harbour, not dredged in seven years, is filled with silt from Kettle Creek, so freighters and big boats can't get in. Even fishing tugs from the thriving commercial fishery are striking bottom.

Meanwhile, Ottawa, anxious to unload the federal port, has ignored conditions in the harbour. Transport Canada is locked in protracted talks with the municipality of Central Elgin, population 13,000, in which Port Stanley is located.

Transport Canada has divested itself of ports across the country, just as it did with airports.

The experience with ports has had mixed results.

In Goderich, the town of 8,000 took over the harbour a few years back and is making money with it. Sarnia, a city of 60,000, is wary of being saddled with its harbour and the liabilities that could come with it.

Port Stanley is a special case. Because harbour ownership is up in the air, U.S.-based proponents of Lake Erie ferry service from places such as Cleveland and Erie, Penn., can't find anyone with whom to negotiate. But without dredging, any such schemes are pointless. Port Stanley is crucial for ferry plans because it's the only deep water port along the north shore of Lake Erie.

With a viable harbour, Port Stanley could play a role in regional economic development. It could reduce truck traffic on major highways and reduce congestion at border crossings.

Instead, tiny Port Stanley may be destined to become a port in name only.

Beginning today and continuing until next Tuesday, The Free Press looks at the bustling past of the port, its grim reality today and its uncertain future. We also look at the success story harbour ownership has become in Goderich, and the unresolved status of Sarnia's harbour.

Chip Martin is a Free Press politics reporter.

E-MAIL: Chip Martin

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