P.E.I. government takes charge of strategic development land

The land used as the staging grounds for the building of the Confederation Bridge was quietly purchased by the province a few months ago.

The government told CBC News on Monday its ownership of the Borden-Carleton fabrication yard gives it control over a strategic piece of land at the gateway to the Island.

The province paid $359,000 for the 45-hectare site, including its deep-water port. It remains as it was when the bridge was completed, a strange landscape of standing concrete pillars.

"Whenever you control a port that is this close to a major shipping point on Prince Edward Island, which is right beside the bridge, I think it's a great opportunity for Prince Edward Island to look at all kinds of different opportunities," said acting innovation minister Wes Sheridan.

The land has sat idle for almost 12 years, since the opening of Confederation Bridge in June 1997. The owners, Strait Crossing Bridge Ltd., said they were unable to find another use for the land.

"We have been pursuing buyers for many, many, many years. We never stopped," said Strait Crossing Bridge general manager Michel Le Chasseur.

Land sale denied

There have been several proposals for the yard. Three years ago, a Connecticut company wanted to buy it and then sell part of it for a $54-million biomass generating plant.

The government wouldn't approve that land sale.

Before that deal was denied, the Connecticut company got a cost estimate of removing the concrete pillars. It was put at about $1 million.

Sheridan said the government is in no hurry to remove the remnants of the Confederation Bridge construction.

"That concrete and gravel that's left on the yard may be just exactly what some company may want as a starting point," said Sheridan.

Now that the land is in government hands, Le Chasseur wonders what restrictions the government might put on development proposals. The town sees it as a prime industrial location, but it also sits at one of the three gateways to the province.

"Smoke stacks or big manufacturing plants is perhaps not the best welcome mat," said Le Chasseur, "but that's all in the eye of the beholder if you create a thousand jobs.