Upcoming increases in harbour fees announced by the Thunder Bay Port Authority (TBPA) in northwestern Ontario were long overdue, and will help the port upgrade aging infrastructure and its day-to-day operations, CEO Chris Heikkinen said.
In a July 28 notice, the TBPA said it’s increasing harbour fees for the 2026 and 2027 shipping seasons, and the new rates will be effective Feb. 1, 2026, and Feb. 1, 2027, respectively.
Cargo rates, which are specific to each type of cargo, are increasing anywhere from 35 to 50 cents per tonne, with half the increase taking place in 2026 and half the increase taking place in 2027, Heikkinen told CBC Thunder Bay. He said current rates for typical cargos are approximately six cents.
Passenger rates are moving from just under $4 per passenger to just under $11 per passenger over the two-year time frame.
“Our fees have been historically low. We kept them frozen since 1989 till 2025,” Heikkinen said on Superior Morning.
“It’s time to make a change and to move toward market value for the port that is an asset that the ships are using.”
The increase in annual revenue will be $2 million to $3 million once the full increase is realized in 2027, Heikkinen said.
According to Heikkinen, “these fees, while they’re increasing, they’re really only increasing by cents on a tonne, so we’re not talking mega dollars here.”
The increases will not only affect cargo, but “every type of commodity, including [cruise ship] passengers,” Heikkinen said.
Heikkinen said TBPA is charged with developing new cargo movement through the port, harbour safety and security, and the revenue gained from the upcoming increases will be necessary “in order to complete our mandate going forward.”
According to Heikkinen, “it was a strategic move” to keep the rates unchanged for so long to be “a competitive route” for the ships.
“But at this point the rates are so low that they’re basically a fraction of what other ports are charging across the system,” he said.
“So, there’s movement to be made without really making much of a dent in what the shippers are paying as an overall fee to move their products.
“It’s not a big one-time hit and basically we’re just going to be catching up with our competitors,” Heikkinen added.
Expanding on how TBPA plans to use the increased revenue, Heikkinen said most of it will be earmarked toward port development.
“The big capital, the big asset that we have in the harbour is the break wall, and so there’s some work underway to determine the condition of that asset and what kind of work we’re probably going to have to be doing on that asset over the next five or 10 years,” he said.
“We have over 10 kilometres worth of break wall … it’s quite an expansive piece of infrastructure and it’s built decades and decades ago.”
Some of the funds will be earmarked for the port operations, Heikkinen said.
“We run a rather tight operation and this will enable a little bit of breathing room and a little bit of expansion of what we do within our mandates.”
Transport Canada announced in March 2024 that it was providing up to $6.7 million to the port, which will allow a number of improvements to be made at Keefer Terminal.
Thunder Bay-Rainy River MP Marcus Powlowski, who announced the funding, said the government provide money for the work to improve supply chains.
“Certainly transportation is a big thing in Canada, given the size of this country and the fact that there’s a lot of goods either going east or west that come through Thunder Bay,” he said.
“So, I think it certainly makes sense that we put some money into reinforcing the transportation links, and a big part of the transportation link is here in Thunder Bay.”
Earlier this year, the Montreal Economic Institute published a report, which argued that automation can provide a path to higher productivity for Canada’s ports.
The argument marked the latest thrust in a decades-long push toward automation on the waterfront, with evidence on its efficiency mixed as the battle plays out at bargaining tables, corporate conferences and policy forums.
Shal Marriott, who authored the report, called current vessel turnaround times “rather dismal.”
The report puts the blame for lagging innovation on unionized employees, who were “often opposing modernization and automation efforts” in recent years.
Unions have pushed back on the notion that automation equals efficiency. They have also stressed that their bargaining power derives from strength in numbers — leverage that is undercut by layoffs made possible through technology.
