Stricken Churchill looks north for shipments by sea

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This article was published 13/06/2017 (3051 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The company that owns the broken Hudson Bay Railway line into Churchill says the track is badly damaged and will be closed until at least next spring, leaving the northern Manitoba port as isolated as Baker Lake and Arviat in Nunavut.

The immediate reaction from Churchill was to roll out a public campaign in an effort to push Denver-based Omnitrax into moving faster on repairs.

Mayor Mike Spence said by phone Tuesday from the northern town of 900 that he and other community leaders would be flying to Winnipeg to hold a press conference on Churchill’s future today.

Details about the conference are to be announced once the plane lands.

“Like I said: this is a work in progress and we met with the community last night (Monday). The need is for everything, for food, for supplies… People are frustrated. They want things done,” the mayor said.

So far, the province has yet to state publicly what it’s prepared to do, citing the news blackout on government announcements until Tuesday’s byelection in Point Douglas is done.

At the same time, the town’s major suppliers and its business owners, while stressing the need for government aid, aren’t sitting idly by — they’re looking north for shipments by sea.

Call for Churchill to be added to food-subsidy list

The North West Company and Arctic Buying Company, the two major suppliers to the North, were reported Tuesday to be pushing Ottawa to step in and add Churchill to its list of remote outposts that qualify for food subsidies.

In separate initiatives, those suppliers and some local hotel and restaurant owners are turning to ships out of Montreal that already supply Baker Lake and Arviat on the bayline coast north of Churchill.

Groupe DesGagnés, a freight shipping company out of Sainte-Catherine, Que., picks up supplies normally sent north by rail to Churchill and barges them along the Hudson Bay coast.

With the rail line shut down into next year, local hotel and restaurant owners are working to get the company to add Churchill to its monthly shipments this summer.

“It’s new for us, this situation,” said Antonio Da Silva, co-owner of Gypsy’s Bakery & Restaurant. “It’s very complicated but it could be cheaper for us so we’re going to try it… They already stop in Churchill and pick up stuff and take it north, but now we’re asking them to add supplies for Churchill.”

This month’s shipment has already sailed; Churchill missed the cut-off date for the June run by hours.

The shipping route follows the Labrador coast into the Hudson Strait, then south into Hudson Bay.

“This is just the beginning. We’re going to be without rail for a long time,” Da Silva said.

Air costs triple that of rail

Air freight charges are roughly triple the cost of moving supplies by rail and so that leaves perishables, such as lettuce and tomatoes, to come in by air with prices for everything from bread to milk set to soar.

Flying in heavy foodstuffs is out of the question.

“It’s almost $100 for a 50-pound sack of potatoes and $26.95 by rail — and that’s just the freight. My flour, I can’t bring it in by air. It’s too heavy, too expensive and I have nothing on this first ship,” Da Silva said.

To ease the inevitable sticker shock, local suppliers are applying pressure to Ottawa to enrol Churchill into its $60-million Nutrition North program, which can cut prices for perishables and cereal by 50 per cent or more.

The North West Company is flying in groceries twice a week. It reported Tuesday it can’t absorb the extra cost much longer.

Another issue: fuel

Meanwhile, nobody is sure how the town will get in enough propane gas for home heating, let alone jet fuel to keep air operations going or fuel to keep ambulances and fire trucks operational.

The town’s storage capacity is too small to allow for enough fuel to be stockpiled for an entire winter, even if it is shipped in by sea.

On Tuesday, Omnitrax spokesman Peter Touesnard told The Canadian Press a short construction season means all the needed rail line repairs can’t be completed before the onset of winter.

A preliminary assessment showed flooding last month washed away the track bed in 19 places and damaged at least five bridges.

The railway owner will take the next four weeks to re-inspect the line and make a list of repairs.

Omnitrax is also calling on Ottawa and the province for financial aid to cover the costs of repairs.

“We have been losing money on this line for some time. We have lost money in its operation over its 20-year life,” Touesnard said. “We estimate we’ve lost $30 million on this rail since we bought it in 1997.”

Omnitrax “cannot justify spending the money that is necessary to bring this line back into shape. We’ll advocate for that. We’ll work with all interested parties to see that the repairs happen,” he said. “But funding for those repairs is going to have to come from elsewhere.”

The rail line is the only land transportation link to Churchill. It brings food, supplies and people to the remote community popular with tourists for its polar bears and other wildlife.

The Denver-based company, which suspended grain shipments from the Port of Churchill last summer and cut back its service for supplies, has been trying to sell the port and rail line to a First Nations consortium.

The groups signed a memorandum of understanding in December, but the deal has not been finalized.

— with files from The Canadian Press

alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca