Few things define Manitoba more than Churchill and the Hudson Bay rail line.
On July 25, OmniTrax shocked Manitobans with the sudden closure of the Port of Churchill. So the eternal debate resumes. What to do with Churchill?
Perhaps the answer starts with recalling how we got here. As early as 1878, the Manitoba government called on the federal government to build a rail line and extend Manitoba’s boundaries to Hudson Bay. It was part of the vision that also saw Manitoba seek to assert sovereignty over what is now North West Ontario as far east as the Lakehead.
Manitoba lost out to Ontario in that dispute, but we kept our aspirations of expansion, focusing on port and rail access to Hudson Bay.
Prairie farmers saw the Hudson Bay rail line as a shorter route to Europe and a way to break CP’s rail monopoly. Starting in 1881 there were six unsuccessful railway charters for construction of the rail line.
By 1908, the rail line reached to the new lumber industry in The Pas. The stage was set to push to the Bay. In 1912 Manitoba’s borders were extended north. We became the keystone province that included the Hudson Bay port options of Port Nelson or Churchill.
The next step was to build the rail line to the selected destination, Port Nelson at York Factory. Construction began but was suspended in 1917 because of the
First World War.
After the war, the decision was made to shift the rail line and build the port at Churchill. Construction finished in 1929. Over the years the port shipped virtually everything, with strong support from farmers.
How did we end up where we are today? The first major change came when Ottawa privatized the port by selling it to OmniTrax in 1997.
Track conditions deteriorated under OmniTrax. It took a $68-million federal-provincial agreement in 2007 to get the track back to an acceptable condition.
Then Ottawa destroyed the Canadian Wheat Board, which provided more than 90 per cent of the shipments to the port, leaving the port’s future in jeopardy.
Which brings us to today. We cannot shut down the port and bay line. The rail line provides access to many communities that lack all-weather road access. It also has so much potential. With climate change, the port’s season can be much longer with shipping through the North West passage or to Russia.
Western Canada is on the verge of a boom over the next decades with our strength in commodities, including the most strategic commodity, food and anything related to its production. Churchill can ship that food and much more.
The solution now is obvious: bring the port and the rail line back under Canadian, public ownership. This could take various forms, including a port authority and First Nations ownership similar to the successful First Nations Keewatin Rail Company line to Pukatawagan.
We need to recognize that Churchill is not just a key part of our history, but our future as well.
Steve Ashton is a former Thompson MLA and provincial minister of infrastructure and transportation. He sat on the Port of Churchill Development Board.
