‘This place was buzzing’: Churchill welcomes first cruise ship in decade

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This article was published 17/07/2023 (841 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Penny Rawlings recalls a time when tourist ships docking at the Port of Churchill were met with RCMP officers in red serge, locals in cultural regalia, and welcome signs.

When the cruise ships stopped coming a decade ago, the welcome parties ended, too, says the owner of Arctic Trading Company souvenir shop for more than 40 years.

However, after watching hundreds of visitors take in the northern Manitoba town’s shops, tours and trails Sunday, Rawlings has hope the celebrations will begin again.

“If they’re open to it, it’ll be good for every business here,” she said Monday.

The mood in Churchill, some 1,000 kilometres north of Winnipeg, has been electric since the luxury liner Silver Endeavour docked Sunday morning, said Remi Foubert-Allen, owner of North Star Tours.

He’s been on the move ever since the first batch of guests — around 100, plus an equal number of Silversea Cruises staff — arrived from Greenland. They were shuttled to everything from beluga whale tours to hiking trails.

Those guests had already left, but another 138 arrived via chartered aircraft Monday to take in the sights before leaving Tuesday evening, Foubert-Allen said.

“If you were coming down the main street on a Sunday before our peak whale season (in prior years), you’d get a handful of guests. Yesterday, this place was buzzing. The main drag was happening. There was people from one end to the other.”

Foubert-Allen, who was born and raised in Churchill, said the local excitement of seeing Canada’s only deep-water Arctic port being put to use began with a cargo ship bound for the Kivalliq Region in Nunavut leaving just hours before the cruise ship arrived.

“If we can create Churchill as an international cruise ship destination, we’re essentially solving a few problems in my eyes. One is utilizing our absolutely amazing port that we have,” Foubert-Allen said.

“Not everybody can be in the tourism industry, and it’s also not a healthy economy if you’re solely based on tourism. So being able to put the guys to work that have always worked at the Port of Churchill… now, instead of tying up grain ships, they’re tying up cruise ships.”

The project had been years in the making and was originally scheduled to begin pre-COVID-19 pandemic, Foubert-Allen said. Plans to have two cruise ships visit next summer are already underway, he added.

“If we could see one or two cruise ships every single summer, that would be huge for the community of Churchill in itself. This is a bit of a trial run. We didn’t want to promise too many things to too many people, locals included,” he said.

“We wanted to just make sure we could pull this off, we could show them that it is possible.”

Churchill Mayor Mike Spence attributed the decade-long pause on cruise ships to shifts in the tourism industry.

“The community is pretty pumped. As you know, we’re an international tourism destination. We’re also a port community. And to see a cruise ship of that magnitude come into the port, it’s a welcome sight,” he said.

Investment in the Port of Churchill, owned by Arctic Gateway Group, will continue as summer tourism in Churchill expands, the mayor said.

“We have a port, the only Arctic port in Canada. You’ve got a rail line terminus, you got a huge (airport) runway, you’ve got a lot of infrastructure that really builds upon attracting international tourism,” he said.

“This port is a port that will continue to be developed and redeveloped for future trade.”

Rawlings said she opened her shop doors to welcome the influx of tourists, despite typically being closed on summer Sundays.

She’s not sure what the future of summer tourism will look like in Churchill, but plans to welcome any new visitors the community can attract.

“It’s like a roller-coaster ride living in Churchill, oh my God,” she said with a laugh. “You just never know. It’s like the weather.”

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca