Mathias Colomb Cree Nation leads effort to purchase northern railway and port

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This article was published 08/01/2016 (3596 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Mathias Colomb Cree Nation has emerged as the leader of an effort by a group of northern Manitoba First Nations to purchase the Hudson Bay Railway and Port of Churchill.

It was disclosed Friday that Mathias Colomb Chief Arlen Dumas has sent an offer to purchase to Omnitrax Canada. Other First Nations are said to be part of the action, and Dumas is looking for others to join the consortium.

“Our First Nation is proud to have taken on the leadership role in this endeavour, and we are very excited to build a strong entity to independently own and operate these assets,” Dumas said in a statement.

Merv Tweed, president of Omnitrax Canada, the owner of the port and the rail line, said the proceedings are going well.

“I see this as a real positive step forward, and things are continuing to move,” Tweed said in an interview. “We are working with the chief who represents a group of First Nations. It is moving very quickly, and I suspect news will be coming out shortly.”

A month ago, Omnitrax announced it wanted out of the northern route the Denver-based company has owned and operated since 1997.

A sharp drop in grain shipments from the port this year and a longstanding inability to attract a more diversified assortment of cargo have stymied Omnitrax’s efforts to create a more successful commercial operation.

The possibility of a First Nations buying group coming forward was thought by many to be a hopeful scenario.

Several First Nations in northern Manitoba rely on the rail line as their only ground transportation option.

Sheila North Wilson, grand chief of the Northern Chiefs organization Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak (MKO), said the assets “are a lifeline to many people and essential to our northern region.”

The port is currently closed for the winter season, but passenger trains continue to operate on the seasonal schedule of three times per week and one freight train per week.

Talks have already started with both the provincial and federal governments regarding potential public-sector support for the rail service.

Discussions with the new Liberal government in Ottawa have included extending and enhancing grain-shipment subsidies that were set up after the previous Conservative government legislated the end of the Canadian Wheat Board monopoly on marketing Prairie grain.

Tweed has argued in the past the service should be treated as a utility and ought to receive some kind of government subsidy that would allow the operator to earn a designated profit margin over and above its operating costs.

Tweed refused to discuss whether the current deal being negotiated would be a cash transaction or some kind of earn-out over time or to what extent public-sector funding might be part of the deal.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca