HAY RIVER - A Northern Ontario trucking company is adding a new multipurpose terminal in Hay River to strengthen its presence in the West and take advantage of what it sees as a boom time for Northern industry.

Mike Maher, deputy mayor of Hay River, and Rob Eskens, director of marketing for Manitoulin Transport, cut the ribbon at the unveiling of Manitoulin's new terminal in Hay River. - photo courtesy of Rob Eskens

Manitoulin Transport's new 20,000-square-foot terminal - capable of handling 500 shipments a night - will send out shipments to communities like Fort Smith, Fort Simpson and Fort Resolution and receive freight from all over Canada and even the United States.

"Hay River will be a hub for us, so that the trucks that drive through the night, called line-haul trucks, will stop and use the terminal," said Rob Eskens, director of marketing for Manitoulin.

Manitoulin's shipping service in the area was formerly provided by another agent, Wesclean Northern Sales. But with the construction of the terminal, Manitoulin will now be able to provide improved service with previously unavailable features under its subsidiary Northwest Transport, according to Eskens.

"With our facility, we're able to organize things more along our time-critical deadlines," he said.

Manitoulin customers will now have access to a system called "real time tracking direct from origin," a feature that Wesclean did not provide.

"If a customer is shipping something from Toronto, the customer can now track it from the day it's picked up and track its progress en route to Hay River," said Eskens.

"In trucking and transportation, sometimes the status of shipments is more important than shipments themselves."

So far the new terminal has created a position for a branch manager, and the terminal is now looking for two qualified drivers, but Eskens expects that in a year and a half, 10 more people will be needed to work as forklift operators and office staff.

The Northwest Territories Power Corp. receives supplies like transformers, power cables and pipe fittings from Manitoulin. Purchasing agent Randy Williams said Manitoulin's new Hay River terminal will speed up the shipping process by at least a day.

"You're dealing with one system that's integrated throughout the whole corporation of Manitoulin, as opposed to dealing with another company's system," he said.

"It just makes things run smoother."

Mike Maher, deputy mayor of Hay River, said Manitoulin's expansion comes at an opportune time both for the company and the community.

"With Tamerlane Ventures' (Pine Point lead-zinc mine) on the horizon, CN developing their transload facility just out of town and, potentially, the (Mackenzie gas) pipeline, we're looking at lots of growth," said Maher.

Manitoulin operates 66 terminals throughout Canada, 27 of them in the West, with other Northern terminals in Yellowknife and Inuvik.