Halifax Harbour - Port Facilities

Port Facilities

After Confederation in 1867, boosters of Halifax expected federal help to make the city's natural harbor Canada's official winter port and a gateway for trade with Europe. Halifax's advantages included its location just off the Great Circle route made it the closest to Europe of any mainland North American port. But the new Intercolonial Railway (ICR) took an indirect, southerly route for military and political reasons, and the national government made little effort to promote Halifax as Canada's winter port. Ignoring appeals to nationalism and the ICR's own attempts to promote traffic to Halifax, most Canadian exporters sent their wares by train though Boston or Portland. No one was interested in financing the large-scale port facilities Halifax lacked. It took the First World War to at last boost Halifax's harbor into prominence on the North Atlantic.

The Halifax Port Authority is a federally-appointed agency which administers and operates various port properties on the harbour. Previously run by the National Harbours Board, the HPA is now a locally-run organization.

HPA facilities include:

• South End Container Terminal - Piers 36-42 (currently operated by Halterm Limited, with several gantry and post-Panamax cranes)
• Halifax Grain Elevator
• Ocean Terminals - Piers 23-34
• Piers 20 -22: Pier 20,Halifax Seaport Farmers Market,The Cruise Ship Pavilion and Pier 21 Museum.
• Richmond Terminals - Piers 9 and 9A
• Richmond Offshore Terminals - Piers 9B-9D (multi-user supply base for offshore oil and gas exploration/production)
• Fairview Cove Container Terminal - (currently operated by Cerescorp)
• National Gypsum Wharf - (currently operated by National Gypsum to serve Wrights Cove gypsum terminal)
• Woodside Atlantic Wharf - (vessel lay-up and repair, oil platform servicing)
• Imperial Oil Wharves - (currently operated by Imperial Oil to serve Dartmouth refinery)
• Ultramar Oil Wharves - (currently operated by Ultramar to serve the petroleum storage facility)
• Eastern Passage Autoport - (currently operated by CN)

All HPA facilities are serviced by CN. It provides on-dock daily train service to Montreal, Toronto, Detroit and Chicago. The railway also operates the Halifax Intermodal Terminal (HIT) adjacent to the Richmond Terminals.

In addition to HPA facilities, the following users have port facilities:

• Irving Shipbuilding operates the Halifax Shipyard, a medium-sized vessel construction and repair yard. The yard contains two floating drydocks (the largest is Panamax size) plus one graving dock and various shore-based operations.
• MARLANT operates the HMC Dockyard, Dockyard Annex, CFAD Bedford, and York Redoubt through CFB Halifax. There are also military docking facilities located adjacent to the Shearwater Heliport.
• Canadian Coast Guard operates CCG Base Dartmouth, housing part of the Atlantic and Arctic fleets as well as pollution response and navigation aids maintenance facilities.
• Bedford Institute of Oceanography maintains docking facilities for various government scientific vessels. Shannon Hill, above the BIO campus is also home to CCG's "Halifax Marine Communications and Traffic Services" which operates Halifax Coast Guard Radio and the Vessel Traffic Services (VTS) centre ("Halifax Traffic"), providing continuous radar coverage of all harbour activity.

• There are several marinas on the harbour:
  • Armdale Yacht Club (Northwest Arm)
  • Bedford Basin Yacht Club (Bedford)
  • Dartmouth Yacht Club (Wrights Cove)- Burnside
  • Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron (Northwest Arm)
  • Shearwater Yacht Club (Shearwater)
  • St. Mary's Boat Club (Northwest Arm)
  • Waegwoltic Club (Northwest Arm)

• There are 2 Automated Weather stations within the harbour
  • McNabs Island
  • Weather buoy Station 44258