“We’ll have an active program on durum wheat and lentils going into the Mediterranean,” said Al-Katib, who’s also CEO of Regina-based AGT Foods, one of the group’s major partners.

There will be four vessels coming to Churchill this season, the same number as last year, he said. In 2019, about 137,000 tonnes of durum and lentils past through the port, which marked the first grain shipments in four years, according to the Hudson Bay Route Association.

Al-Katib said work is being carried out to stabilize the track bed. When under the ownership of Omnitrax, there were a number of washouts along the route that cut Churchill’s only land link. It wasn’t until the Arctic Gateway Group acquired the line and the port, that the link was re-established.

“We remain very optimistic that when we go forward into 2021 and beyond, that Churchill can start to get back into that eight- to 10-vessel range,” Al-Katib said, noting the group is working with the federal and provincial government to achieve that goal.

Shipments of grain through Churchill began to drop after 640,000 tonnes in 2013. The following year saw a 17.1 per cent decline, followed by a 65.2 per cent dive in 2015 before ending altogether due to the washouts.

— Glen Hallick reports for MarketsFarm from Winnipeg.

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“We’re in the early days of harvest, so it would be very normal to expect the first vessels to arrive in the first half of September,” said Al-Katib, who’s expecting a September-October shipping season.

“Things are looking good on yields and quality, so there should be an opportunity to durum, lentils, and maybe [Canada Western Red Spring wheat] as well, going through Churchill,” he added.

At this time, Al-Katib didn’t say how much in grain and pulses would pass through Churchill this year, noting that it’s a public-use port.

“It depends on who steps up and does what. We have the capacity and space,” he said, noting the railway is ready for this season’s shipments.

“There was a good, slow melt in [northern] Manitoba this year, so the tracks are in good shape.”

The latter was a grave issue for the port’s viability a few years ago, when sections of the railway south of Churchill were washed out by high water. Omnitrax, the line’s owners at the time, was reported to have refused to foot the costs for repairs without sufficient government assistance.

After three years of no rail traffic to or from Churchill, Omnitrax sold the line to an AGT-led business consortium, the Arctic Gateway Group, which includes a number of northern Manitoba communities.

While Churchill is plagued by a much shorter shipping season, and a rail line hampered by the shifting whims of the northern tundra, the port is much closer to major export destinations such as in Europe, relative to ports in southern Canada such as Thunder Bay.

During the 2019-20 marketing year Churchill there were 137,200 tonnes grains and pulses that passed through its port. Of that, almost 75 per cent was amber durum and the rest was lentils, according to the Canadian Grain Commission. In 2015, the year before the line was closed, 184,600 tonnes of grain were shipped via Churchill.

Ten years ago, about 659,000 tonnes were shipped through the port, according to the Hudson Bay Route Association.

That said, Churchill pales in comparison to a year-round port such as Vancouver, or a spring-to-fall port such as Thunder Bay — but Canada’s only major northern port has an important niche role.

“With a big crop coming, we need all of the ports in Canada. This is why we believe Churchill is a great surge port for the Canadian grain sector,” Al-Katib said.

— Glen Hallick reports for MarketsFarm from Winnipeg.

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“Happy to report the successful completion and departure of the first grain vessel of the season from Churchill,” Arctic Gateway said on Twitter and Facebook.

The vessel arrived at the port on Aug. 25, but loading was delayed due to adverse weather, according to reports.

Arctic Gateway described the shipment as “a really important first step in re-establishing the Port of Churchill as an important part of Canada’s position as an agricultural export leader in the world.”

When reached, Arctic Gateway officials declined to comment and said they would not provide any details on the cargo beyond the available social media posts on what was a “commercial transaction.”

According to Canadian Grain Commission data, there were 35,400 tonnes of durum and 11,500 tonnes of lentils in storage in Churchill as of Sept. 1.

Online tracking data shows a cargo ship named Federal Satsuki left Churchill on Saturday, with Sarroch, on the Italian island of Sardina, its next port of call. The vessel has the capacity to carry 43,561 tonnes of grain.

The Port of Churchill, on the shores of Hudson Bay in Manitoba, is Canada’s only deepwater Arctic port and a typical season runs from late July through October.

OmniTrax, the previous owner of the port and rail line servicing it, abruptly halted grain shipments in the 2016 season, after fewer than 200,000 tonnes moved through the facility the previous year. Grain movement had slowed since the demise of the Canadian Wheat Board’s single desk in 2012.

Sections of the rail line washed out in 2017 and were left in disrepair until the Arctic Gateway Group took over in 2018 and began repairs.

AGG is a partnership of First Nations and other northern communities, Toronto financier Fairfax Financial Holdings and Regina-based pulse processor AGT Food and Ingredients.

— Phil Franz-Warkentin writes for MarketsFarm, a Glacier FarmMedia division specializing in grain and commodity market analysis and reporting.

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Omnitrax, which had owned the Hudson Bay Rail Line and the Port of Churchill since 1997, refused to repair the line without government assistance. Onmitrax sold the line and port in August to Arctic Gateway Group Limited Partnership, which is comprised of AGT Limited Partnership, Missinippi Rail Limited Partnership and Fairfax Financial Holdings. Once the sale was finalized work began on repairing the line, which was completed earlier this fall.

The federal government contributed C$117 million in support of the acquisition and repair of the rail line and among those present in Churchill for the official reopening was Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

“Today’s announcement marks the beginning of a new chapter for Churchill. We know that nobody is more invested in the future of the Hudson Bay Rail Line than the people who live in Churchill. We have committed millions of dollars over the next decade to ensure the ongoing operations of the line, and made significant investments to increase tourism, support skills training, and empower local businesses, which will bring long-term benefits to the people of Churchill and northern Manitoba,” Trudeau said.

The Hudson Bay Route Association, which advocates for moving grain through the northern port, is very pleased with the reopening of the rail line.

“It’s great news. It’s a long time coming,” said HBRA President Elden Boon.

He expects regular rail service to Churchill to begin in the near future and said the Arctic Gateway Group is now focusing on the port. Grain was last shipped through the port in 2015, with only 184,600 tonnes that year. Prior to that, grain exports through Churchill averaged approximately 500,000 tonnes per year.

“They’re doing some upgrades in there, some general maintenance and housecleaning as we speak,” Boon said.

A spokesperson for the Western Grain Elevator Association said the association is pleased the people of Churchill have their sole land link back, but the WGEA is unhappy with the federal government’s role in it. They consider the feds’ contribution as subsidizing a private corporation that will compete against other grain ports such as that in Thunder Bay, Ont.

“We don’t think that is the role for the federal government,” said Wade Sobkowich, WEGA executive director,

He said Thunder Bay is currently underutilized and grain shipments to that port should be increased.

AGT did not respond to requests for comment, but the company has commented previously it foresees moving pulses, wheat and canola through Churchill in the future.

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Ottawa’s pledge follows the Aug. 31 announcement of a deal for a private/public partnership group to buy the Hudson Bay Railway line, which has been closed since May last year due to damage from washouts and flooding.

The Arctic Gateway Group is taking over ownership of the line from U.S. shortline operator OmniTrax, which since 1997 had owned the port and grain terminal facilities at Churchill, Man. and Canadian National Railway’s (CN) rail line northeast from The Pas, Man. to Churchill.

Repairs to the rail line are underway, the government said Friday, with crews working “seven days a week, from sunrise to sunset, making best efforts to restore the rail service before winter 2018.”

The financial terms of Arctic Gateway’s deal with OmniTrax weren’t disclosed, but Friday’s announcement is the first to lay out the specifics of the federal contribution to the new ownership group’s business plan.

The total federal investment of $117 million will flow through Western Economic Diversification Canada.

Of that, $74 million will be provided over three years (2018-19 to 2020-21) to the Arctic Gateway Group for “acquisition and repair” of the Hudson Bay rail line and the port assets at Churchill.

The remaining $43 million will be paid out to Arctic Gateway over 10 years (2018-19 to 2027-28) for “operations and enhancing the commercial viability” of the rail line, port terminal assets and the Churchill Marine Tank Farm.

On top of that investment, the federal government has put up a further “repayable contribution” of $10 million, due 150 days from closing, as bridge financing until Arctic Gateway can “secure their own loan on commercial terms.”

Arctic Gateway Group, under the terms of the arrangement, will not provide dividends for at least 10 years, the government said. Thus, “the shareholders have no immediate returns on equity and intend to reinvest into the companies and northern Manitoba.”

Restoring the Hudson Bay rail line in time for winter would allow freight traffic such as food, fuel and other goods to resume to First Nations and communities en route. The government on Friday described the line as a “critical piece of transportation infrastructure” for almost 30,000 people along the line and in the Kivalliq region of Nunavut.

Supports for food and fuel delivery will remain in place until the rail line is operational, the government said. International Trade Diversification Minister Jim Carr, a Winnipeg MP, said Friday that “all efforts will be made to restore service before winter freeze-up.”

The rail line, completed in 1929, and the port facility, built by 1931, were set up to serve northern communities and provide an alternate shipping route into and out of Western and central Canada.

From a seagoing export perspective, railing grain from certain areas of Saskatchewan and Manitoba up and out through Churchill, rather than east to Thunder Bay, is believed to shave up to three days off voyages to some ports in Western Europe.

Churchill’s grain handle faltered, however, in the five years after the deregulation of its main customer, the Canadian Wheat Board.

OmniTrax shut down the Churchill port facility and laid off its staff before its 2016 season. After the 2017 washouts, the company declared force majeure and indefinitely suspended rail operations, saying it wasn’t prepared to pay for repairs without government assistance.

Regina-based AGT Food and Ingredients, one of the members of the Arctic Gateway Group and a major pulse crop processor and supplier, has said it aims to have “further port access” for its export shipments once the Port of Churchill is reopened.

The port’s ice-limited shipping season, typically July through October, has been a benefactor of global warming in recent years, but warmer weather also makes the rail line, much of which is built on permafrost, less stable. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Regina-based pulse processor AGT Food and Ingredients is one of the members of the Arctic Gateway Group, which on Friday confirmed a deal to buy the railway, port and related assets from U.S. shortline rail operator OmniTrax. Financial details of the deal remain undisclosed.

Among the three Arctic Gateway partners, Missinippi Rail LP — a partnership between Mathias Colomb Cree Nation, Fox Lake Cree Nation, Opaskwayak Cree Nation, Tataskweyak Cree Nation, War Lake First Nation, York Factory First Nation and municipalities along the rail line — gets a 50 per cent ownership stake in the group and “board appointments commensurate with this interest,” according to Grand Chief Arlen Dumas of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs.

AGT and Toronto investment firm Fairfax Financial Holdings get the remaining minority stakes in the group.

According to AGT, the group’s deal involves “multi-year contribution agreements” with the federal government to support the share purchase, repairs of the port and rail line.

The deal also calls for Fairfax and AGT will operate the rail line and port facilities under a 99-year operating agreement, AGT said.

AGT also noted the deal “will not obligate AGT to incur any material expenditure” or “any material additional to indebtedness.”

“Though the investment isn’t material for AGT from a capital expenditure perspective, we feel the ability to add further port access is important for our long-term plan as the recovery of markets for Canadian agricultural products continues in the coming years,” AGT CEO Murad Al-Katib said in a release.

Fairfax president Paul Rivett, on Arctic Gateway’s behalf, noted in a separate release that the deal calls for a “long-term support package through Western Diversification and Export Development Canada” to acquire the assets and implement its first phase.

That phase, he said, will be “to repair the rail line (and) undertake safety and rehabilitation upgrades to the port and the railway assets to efficiently operate freight and passenger services to the northern communities and the port.

The group, he said, has awarded a contract to Brandon, Man. rail services company Cando Rail and Alberta soil stabilization and ground reinforcement firm Paradox Access Solutions to get repairs underway. “We are racing against time to attempt to restore services prior to the winter season,” he added.

Churchill Mayor Mike Spence, speaking in Arctic Gateway’s release, described the deal as “historic,” adding “I don’t think there’s another model out there in Canada that would fit into this equation.”

The Hudson Bay Railway, which runs from the northwestern Manitoba communities of The Pas and Flin Flon northeast through Thompson to Churchill, hasn’t operated since May 2017, following flooding and washouts along the stretch between Amery and Churchill.

The rail line, completed in 1929, and the port facility, built by 1931, were set up to serve northern communities and provide an alternate shipping route into and out of Western and central Canada. Denver-based OmniTrax had bought the government-owned port and Canadian National Railway’s (CN) rail line in 1997.

From an export perspective, railing grain from certain areas of Saskatchewan and Manitoba up and out through Churchill, rather than east to Thunder Bay, is believed to shave up to three days off voyages to some ports in Western Europe.

But Churchill’s grain handle declined in the five years after the deregulation of its main customer, the Canadian Wheat Board. OmniTrax shut down the port facility and laid off its staff before the 2016 grain shipping season.

The port’s ice-limited shipping season, typically July through October, has been a benefactor of global warming in recent years, but warmer weather also makes the rail line, much of which is built on permafrost, less stable. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The CTA — the quasi-judicial tribunal and regulator for the Canadian transport sector — on Wednesday granted a request filed by an unnamed representative of Manitoba’s provincial opposition New Democrats to order OmniTrax Canada’s Hudson Bay Railway Co. (HBR) to begin repairs on the line.

The rail line, which runs from the northwestern Manitoba communities of The Pas and Flin Flon northeast through Thompson to the Port of Churchill on Hudson Bay, hasn’t operated since May 2017, following flooding and washouts along the stretch between Amery (about 45 km northeast of Gillam) and Churchill.

OmniTrax declared force majeure and an indefinite suspension of operations on the line on June 9.

The application from the Manitoba NDP caucus alleged HBR is in violation of its level-of-service obligations and asked the CTA to order the company to compensate residents along the line for job losses and rising costs of goods, and to either repair the line or undertake the same transfer/discontinuance process other railways are required to follow.

The CTA found HBR has been in breach of its obligations since November 2017 and must “initiate repair of the rail line by July 3, 2018 and resume its operation as expeditiously as possible.”

HBR also must file progress reports on the line’s repair once a month starting Aug. 1 “until operation of the rail line has resumed.”

“This is the first order forcing HBR and OmniTrax to repair the line that any level of government has received,” provincial NDP leader Wab Kinew said in a release Friday.

The shutdown of the line and port “has caused severe and ongoing economic losses to the town, including significant job losses,” the party said in its release. “Families have been struggling to afford the rising costs of food, household items and building materials.”

In its ruling, the CTA noted the NDP representative’s argument that even if flooding was found to be a “force majeure” event — in which unforeseeable circumstances prevent a party from meeting its agreed-upon obligations — it would only entitle HBR to claim a “reasonable pause” in operations, not to discontinue service altogether.

The NDP representative said OmniTrax in July last year claimed the damage could be repaired by the end of October that year for between $20 million and $60 million. However, the party rep was quoted as saying in the ruling, “a more fulsome investigation” might have found another cost estimate to cover the “immediate” repairs needed.

The CTA, citing an “undisputed” report by AECOM on the condition of the line, found “immediate” repairs include 21 track washouts, a culvert washout, two bridges with washout damage, two with “other” damage and one with heaving, plus three “unstable areas.”

Other “immediate but non-essential” repairs, the CTA said, include 33 culvert sites to be replaced or repaired and 11 with washout damage, 46 wooden box-type culverts to be replaced, eight bridges in need of repair or “further investigation” and three “unstable areas.”

However, the agency said, HBR claims it “cannot be compelled to bankrupt itself in order to provide reasonable service” and its service obligations “must be tempered by economic considerations.”

HBR cited precedents including a 2017 CTA case, brought by Univar Canada against Canadian Pacific Railway (CP), over the railway’s level-of-service obligations following a fire damaging a rail bridge leading to Univar’s Richmond, B.C. plant.

In the Univar case, the agency said it accepted that a force majeure event could make it impossible for a railway to provide service for “a period of time it termed a reasonable pause.”

However, the agency added, it “specifically rejected the notion that a railway company can be permanently relieved of its service obligations without following the transfer and discontinuance process.”

Any rail company that doesn’t avail itself of the transfer and discontinuance process, the CTA said, “has ongoing obligations… including service obligations.” HBR thus is “not permanently relieved from its level of service obligations” as they relate to the damaged line.

The CTA, referring again to the AECOM report, “which HBR itself commissioned,” found the Hudson Bay line could have been returned to operations for the “safe passage of light loaded trains” in November last year, thus the period of “reasonable pause” runs only until then.

The agency said it doesn’t have authority to order HBR to compensate other affected parties for expenses they incurred after the line was shut down.

It temporarily had such authority, it noted, when the Fair Rail for Grain Farmers Act was in effect from May 2014 until August 2016, and it has such authority again after the passage of the Transportation Modernization Act into law on May 23 this year.

An order for HBR to repair the line, however, is “clearly warranted in the circumstances of an ongoing service breach.”

The federal government on May 30 announced a deal in principle for the sale of the Hudson Bay line and Churchill port facilities to a buying group including Toronto investment firm Fairfax Financial Holdings; Regina pulse crop processor AGT Food and Ingredients; and Missinippi Rail Partners, a joint operation of Missinippi Rail Limited Partnership and OneNorth, representing northern communities in Manitoba and Nunavut. That deal has yet to be finalized.

Denver-based OmniTrax has owned the port and rail line since 1997. The rail line, completed in 1929, and the port facility, built by 1931, were set up to serve northern communities and provide an alternate shipping route into and out of Western and central Canada.

From a grain export perspective, railing grain out of certain areas of Saskatchewan and Manitoba up and out through Churchill instead of east to Thunder Bay is believed to shave up to three days off voyages to some ports in Western Europe.

But the port’s grain handle declined following the deregulation of its main customer, the Canadian Wheat Board. OmniTrax shut down the port facility and laid off its staff before the 2016 grain shipping season.

The port’s ice-limited shipping season, typically July through October, has been a benefactor of global warming in recent years, but warmer weather also makes the rail line, much of which is built on permafrost, less stable. — AGCanada.com Network

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Details of the agreement were slim at best in the government’s announcement Wednesday, except to say the buying group slated to take over the northern Manitoba assets includes Toronto-based investment firm Fairfax Financial Holdings; Regina pulse crop processor AGT Food and Ingredients; and Missinippi Rail Partners, a joint operation of Missinippi Rail Limited Partnership and OneNorth, a pair of groups representing northern communities in Manitoba and Nunavut.

The buying group’s agreement in principle with U.S. shortline operator OmniTrax, the previous owner of the rail and port assets, will “restore rail service to northern Manitoba and transfer ownership of the Port of Churchill,” the government said.

The new arrangement, the government said, has “active participation” from 30 First Nations and 11 non-First Nations communities in northern Manitoba, plus seven Kivalliq communities in western Nunavut.

“The people of northern Manitoba have long understood the value of the rail line,” federal Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr, a Winnipeg MP, said in the government’s release. “This agreement in principle allows those most affected to have a direct stake in the future and long-term interests of their communities.”

Wednesday’s announcement, the government said, “is a signal that negotiations are moving forward and a made-in-Canada solution is imminent.”

Missinippi and OneNorth “provide First Nation and community participation through their ownership stake and shortline rail experience,” the government said, while Fairfax and AGT offer “significant private sector leadership” as well as their own experience in shortline rail.

AGT — a supplier of lentils, peas, beans and chickpeas from the Prairies and other pulse-growing countries — and Fairfax are also “integral to the longer-term financial prospects of the Port of Churchill,” the government said.

Wednesday’s announcement appears to officially freeze out another prospective buying group, a consortium of Manitoba First Nations led by Chief Glenn Hudson of Peguis First Nation with a new operator, iChurchill Inc.

iChurchill said May 22 it had agreed to terms with OmniTrax in March for the port and railway, but last week halted any further negotiations, citing the federal government’s “unwillingness to engage in meaningful dialogue” on the buying group’s proposal.

‘Foundational’

OmniTrax in May last year closed down the Hudson Bay Railway, an asset the government described Wednesday as “one of the foundational pieces of transportation infrastructure” in northern Manitoba.

In the wake of flooding that spring, OmniTrax said the track bed was washed away in 19 spots, five bridges were “visibly damaged” and another 30 bridges and 600 culverts would need to be further assessed. It later said repairs would cost as much as US$60 million and it wasn’t prepared to pay without government assistance.

The federal government has said its 2008 agreement with OmniTrax calls for federal financial support to the railway, for which OmniTrax in return was to maintain and operate rail service through to Churchill until 2029. OmniTrax, Carr said in October, “has not met its obligations.”

Denver-based OmniTrax had bought the government-owned port and Canadian National Railway’s (CN) rail line from The Pas to Churchill in 1997. The rail line, completed in 1929, and the port facility, built by 1931, were set up to serve northern communities and provide an alternate shipping route into and out of Western and central Canada.

From a grain export perspective, railing grain out of certain areas of Saskatchewan and Manitoba up and out through Churchill instead of east to Thunder Bay is believed to shave up to three days off voyages to some ports in Western Europe.

But the port’s grain handle declined in the five years after the deregulation of its main customer, the Canadian Wheat Board. OmniTrax shut down the port facility and laid off its staff before the 2016 grain shipping season.

The port’s ice-limited shipping season, typically July through October, has been a benefactor of global warming in recent years, but warmer weather also makes the rail line, much of which is built on permafrost, less stable. — AGCanada.com Network

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“The port has got all of the grain handling equipment and simply said, the first thing we want to do is resume that commercial activity,” said Louis Dufresne, president of iChurchill Inc., in a phone interview Friday.

In a release dated Thursday it was announced a consortium of Manitoba First Nations, led by Peguis First Nation Chief Glenn Hudson, in partnership with iChurchill Inc., a private Canadian company, had entered into an acquisition agreement with Denver-based Omnitrax, to take over control of the Hudson Bay Railway, the Port of Churchill and associated assets.

Sections of the rail line between Gillam and Churchill were washed out in May 2017, making it inoperable. Omnitrax had previously closed the port to grain shipments in 2016. The rail line had been used less since the Canadian Wheat Board’s single-desk marketing power was dissolved in 2012.

The Port of Churchill is North America’s only Arctic deep-water port and is covered in ice for most of the year, accessible only between late July and early November.

There had been reports other groups were interested in taking control of the rail line but it wasn’t until May this year that anything concrete was announced.

The First Nations and iChurchill have been working on the deal for months. iChurchill is a new company formed for the project and Dufresne said it plans to be based in Winnipeg.

The group includes more than a dozen Manitoba First Nations and a group of entrepreneurs including Dufresne, a former engineer. The other directors include Robyn Lore, a farmer and land rights specialist, and Doug McNeil, a director with the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters.

iChurchill also includes numerous advisors, such as Gary Rennick, who was involved with the original sale of the rail line from Canadian National Railway to Omnitrax.

“We see a lot of value and potential in these assets and we’re committed to making the business viable… (it is) very important for us in advancing our businesses, for the entity to be financially viable it’s a requirement the rail line cannot be only for passenger service and delivery of consumer goods, it’s got to be supported by significant commercial activity,” Dufresne said.

The Hudson Bay Route Association (HBRA), which has advocated for the use of the rail line and port, was pleased to hear the news. According to Wayne Bacon, second vice-president with HBRA and chair of Northern Lights Rail, the rail line and port are critical pieces of infrastructure for shortline railway companies.

“(The Port of Churchill has) basically been shut down for three years and it really has caused a lot of grief for a lot of producers and for the shortlines… over the last three years, (the shortlines) haven’t been able to move any wheat at all. The big companies don’t want us to use their ports,” he said.

The new ownership group said it plans to post requests for proposals for the repairs within the following days. It said wants to have the deal completed by mid-June in order to ensure the repairs are well underway by fall/winter.

iChurchill Inc. plans to release more information about its plans for the rail line and port at a press conference in Winnipeg on Tuesday (May 8).

— Ashley Robinson writes for Commodity News Service Canada, a Glacier FarmMedia company specializing in grain and commodity markets reporting. Follow her at @AshleyMR1993 on Twitter.

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Served by 820 kilometres of railway line from The Pas, it shipped western grain to European markets until the port was stranded, then closed, and the hundreds of remote northern communities along the railway line were left isolated as the port and railway’s private owner, OmniTrax, failed to repair the tracks after flooding in early 2016.

• Editorial: On a (rail)road to nowhere

Despite the strategic importance of Churchill, North America’s only Arctic deepwater port, the rail line from The Pas was never easy to operate. However, the severe problems of today are predictable results stemming from two catastrophic blunders made by the Canadian government.

While opinions vary on railway privatization, it is unforgivable that Liberal Prime Minister Jean Chretien’s government allowed CN, a Class I railway, to sell the Churchill line to OmniTrax in 1997 without requiring the new owner to uphold the statutory common carrier obligation to move duly loaded cars to their destination in a timely fashion. At the same time, the federal government upgraded Churchill’s port facilities, and then gave them to OmniTrax.

The second catastrophic blow to Churchill occurred when Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper dismantled the farmer-elected board of Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) in 2011, ended its single-desk selling authority and later gave its assets to G3, a partnership of U.S.-based Bunge and the Saudi Agricultural and Livestock Investment Company.

Under the CWB’s single-desk selling and aggregation advantage, all four western ports — Churchill, Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Thunder Bay — were utilized strategically. Grain grown in the Hudson Bay route catchment was predominantly marketed at vessel volumes through the Port of Churchill by the CWB. This lowered handling and transportation costs to farmers and in years of bumper crops it alleviated congestion to the West Coast.

Anticipating Churchill would be in trouble without the CWB’s orderly marketing powers, the Harper government threw private grain companies up to $25 million with a five-year, $9.20-per-tonne freight subsidy to help OmniTrax and camouflage the fallout from destroying the CWB. It isn’t surprising that once the subsidy ended, the grain companies quit using Churchill, as private companies cannot be expected to act beyond their own self-interest.

The single-desk CWB served farmers with transparent higher net prices and lower transportation costs. At the same time, the CWB served all of Canada by strategically utilizing our geographical resources, which was possible as a result of being the marketing agency for the whole western wheat crop and having strong relationships with international buyers.

The dominoes have fallen: the tracks need two decades’ worth of proper maintenance, farmers are paying higher freight rates, other routes are more congested, there are more greenhouse gas emissions, Churchill is suffering economic losses, and northern communities are cut off from essential services.

Dominoes will continue to fall as private grain companies avoid Thunder Bay, the next most expensive shipping route, further congesting the overutilized West Coast corridor. One can only guess at the nightmare scenario if an earthquake hits Vancouver.

Canada has lost a third of its railway track miles in the last three decades. Abandonment has definitely increased profitability for CN and CP, but their gains should not be seen as an increase in overall efficiency of the transportation system.

Farmers pick up the cost of trucking farther to main line terminals, with triple the greenhouse gas emissions per mile compared with rail transport.

In the 1880s, the public gave private railway companies millions of acres of land — including the mineral rights — in return for agreeing to move freight at regulated rates. CN and CP have become very profitable businesses as a result.

Thus abandonment of railway lines cannot be simply a rail company’s decision without the public being compensated somehow. Governments have been far too lax in upholding the public interest in this matter. It is time they sharpened the pencil.

As for Churchill, the solution lies not in suing OmniTrax for its very predictable failures, but in working with northern Manitoba First Nations and nationalizing both the line and the port facilities to restore the Port of Churchill as an essential fourth western grain-shipping route.

Climate change will likely make it an even more strategic and commercially attractive port and, an active port will revitalize the town as a base for government services to support new tasks that will be needed in the North.

Ian Robson farms grain and cattle with his family at Deleau, Manitoba. He is on the National Farmers Union board of directors.

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