Membertou signs on as major partner for Sydney port development

MEMBERTOU, N.S. – The Chronicle Herald

Sydney Harbour Investment Partners has expanded its partnership consortium to include Membertou First Nation and Bridging Finance Inc.

The partnership is working to develop Novaporte, a deep-water, multi-use port on 500 acres within the Port of Sydney. Port goals are for a container capacity of one million 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in phase one and three million TEU’s by phase three.

“Through increased efforts with SHIP, we see great potential for the future of Sydney harbour,” said Chief Terry Paul of Membertou First Nation and CEO of Membertou Development Corp., in a press release. “In Membertou, we recognize the robust capacity of the port and believe its economic opportunities are vast.”

Bridging Finance is an Indigenous-led private Canadian company providing middle-market Canadian companies with alternative financing options.

“We see tremendous potential in this project and we think it has wide-reaching benefits to Membertou and all 13 Mi’kmaq communities, as well as for the entire province of Nova Scotia,” said David Sharpe, CEO of Bridging Finance and a member of the Mohawks of the Bay Quinte, in a press release. “We look forward to our partnership with SHIP.”

Membertou has an existing partnership through SHIP’s Novazone project, a planned logistics park of more than 1,250 acres next to the Novaporte site. All 13 Nova Scotia Mi’kmaq communities are also major shareholders of Novazone. Future plans are for Membertou to become a major equity player in SHIP and Novaporte — while remaining invested in Novazone.

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