Manitoba, Ottawa putting up $60M for Churchill railway upgrades, port redevelopment

The provincial and federal governments are committing $60 million to enhance the railway to northern Manitoba and Canada’s only rail-accessible deepwater port on Arctic waters.

Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew and federal Northern Affairs Minister Dan Vandal will be in Churchill to make the announcement on Friday morning.

The two levels of government will each contribute $30 million to improve the Hudson Bay Railway, which is the northern Manitoba community’s only land link to the south, and begin the redevelopment of the Port of Churchill, a government source confirmed. CBC is not naming the person because they were not authorized to speak on the matter.

The money will be used to finish capital upgrades to the rail line, which has endured lengthy service disruptions over the years, and handle operating and maintenance costs.

Funding will also be available to support the next stages of the port’s development, which includes exploring any future export partnerships.

The government source wouldn’t comment on what commodities might be involved in those partnerships, but there has been talk of shipping hydrogen, which Kinew has championed.

Some politicians, including federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, have also touted transporting oil through Churchill, but that has been denounced by environments.

New shipments expected in 2024

The funding will also support the expected growth of the railway and connected port, the source confirmed.

For example, the Arctic Gateway Group — a partnership of dozens of First Nation and Bayline communities that owns and operates the rail line — reached an agreement late last year to ship up to 20,000 tonnes of zinc concentrate mined by Hudbay.

Arctic Gateway said in a news release it would build storage facilities to hold on to the material before it is loaded onto international vessels.

Other opportunities for the railway and port include the arrival of more cruise ships and a twice-weekly freight service launching this year to help supply food and fuel for communities like those in Nunvaut’s Kivalliq region, the source said.

Last year, Churchill welcomed its first cruise ship in over a decade. The potential for more cruise ships is one of the opportunities a redeveloped Port of Churchill will hope to seize, a government source said. (Submitted by Brendan McEwan )

The funding support to be announced Friday is in addition to $133 million promised by the province and feds in 2022 to upgrade the rail line.

The federal government had, prior to this week, put in a total of more than $215 million toward railway improvements.

The land link to the south, privatized after the federal government sold the Canadian National Railway in 1995, runs through remote, boggy terrain and has been prone to defects, cutting off northern communities from each other.

Its previous U.S.-based owners stopped running trains to Churchill for around 18 months after the railway line was badly damaged by flooding in 2017.

Under former premier Brian Pallister, the province did not provide any financial support to repair the rail line once the Arctic Gateway ownership group took over.

Heather Stefanson, who succeeded Pallister as the Progressive Conservative Party’s leader and premier in 2021, changed course by contributing more than $70 million toward the project.

Kinew, Vandal and Arctic Gateway chairperson Mike Spence, who is also the mayor of Churchill, weren’t available Wednesday to speak before the official announcement.

Politicians tout rail line

The premier has said publicly he sees Manitoba, with access to Hudson Bay, as a maritime province with untapped economic potential.

Vandal, the minister responsible for Northern Affairs, has called the all-weather rail line the “backbone of northern Manitoba” and said it is vital to maintain national and global interests.

The previous Manitoba PC government explored the idea of building another deepwater port off Hudson Bay as part of a plan to ship potash from Saskatchewan and petroleum products from Alberta across the Arctic Ocean.

One day before the start of a pre-election blackout on government spending announcements last summer, the province committed $6.7 million for a feasibility study on the proposal, called the NeeStaNan project. Manitoba’s funding pledge was contingent on Alberta and Saskatchewan covering the remainder of the $26-million study cost.

NeeStaNan said in a news release last month that Phase 1 of its feasibility study was underway, but didn’t provide any more details. The company wasn’t available late Wednesday to comment on its progress.