The Maple Leaf
Northern Plains’ Canadian partnerships continued to grow in 2021, and by year-end several notable business targets had been met. “We completed Phase 2 of the Alberta Midland Terminal in November,” says Kelly D. Sledz, CEO. “Our business of serving rail-served shippers within Alberta’s Industrial Heartland continued to grow, and our storage-in-transit services were very much in demand, with refinery turnarounds that occurred this past summer.” With strong demand for energy products coming out of the pandemic, we are very pleased to see the Edmonton region rebound from the relatively slower economic cycle we experienced over the last 24 months.
Quality Rail Services construction personnel finish up at AMRT, April 2021
An exciting development at AMRT has been the introduction of an intermodal track that can be used by customers in the region for material handling, multi-commodity transloading from rail cars to trucks, and staging of certain industrial products. This summer, AMRT provided transloading for both local agricultural and industrial customers – an exercise that validated the need for an improved and more efficient facility. “Thanks to the leadership efforts of our project Engineer Wayne Carten, the project management of Bill Salmond and Brent Cheek, and to all of our contractors including Chemco and Quality Rail Services – we have a modest facility now available with excellent truck access, and the ability to serve both CN and CPR routings,” remarked Kelly.
At Weyburn, Saskatchewan, NPRS-Canada was pleased to participate in the official opening and first cars transloaded by Weyburn Industrial Transload. WIT has sights set on continuous growth, strategically located in the great southeast with its abundance of energy and agricultural opportunity. “Saskatchewan represents a continued growth opportunity for Northern Plains and our partners,” said NP’s Shawn I. Smith. “When governments are open for business, and we can find quality partners like those we have invested with in WIT and AMRT, it’s a building block for success. No question, as we look towards 2022, our commitment to our Canadian partnerships will continue to grow.”
