Prices, anxiety soar while supplies, patience run low in Churchill after 13 weeks without trains

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This article was published 22/08/2017 (2966 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — Omnitrax has updated federal officials about issues along its damaged railway to Churchill, but refuses to say when it will share its findings with public.

“Transport Canada rail-safety officials met with Omnitrax on Monday, August 21, to discuss the engineering assessment as it relates to the condition of the rail line,” spokeswoman Julie Leroux wrote Tuesday, as the northern Manitoba town suffers in its 13th week without its overland lifeline.

Omnitrax has said it received the updated report Aug. 4, it includes a final cost estimate for the repairs, and it wouldn’t make any information public until meeting with Transport Canada.

On July 18, the company estimated the flooding-related damages between $20 million and $60 million, which it said were “not economically viable.” The Denver-based company had no statement Tuesday.

The federal government insists Omnitrax is obliged to keep the rail line running, and lawyers suspect the company is breaching federal transportation law.

That law is enforced by the Canadian Transportation Agency, which advised the Free Press it wouldn’t investigate Omnitrax until it received complaints, prompting a dozen readers to write in.

Last Friday, the CTA said it’s probing whether the company has broken the law relating to rail-line abandonment. The agency also said laws dealing with the movement of goods might also be breached, but said “most of the emails received do not constitute formal complaints of this sort.”

Churchill resident Echo Finlay, who is among those who filed complaints, said Ottawa is dragging its feet while the town’s families struggle.

“They said we haven’t complained properly,” she said. “It’s like we’re finding out, after the fact, what hoops we need to jump through.”

Finlay, who works for a family-resource centre, filed her complaint after seeing single parents lose their housekeeping jobs, while others on welfare struggle with rising food costs.

“I feel a duty to advocate for the families I work with, because not everybody can,” she said. “We’re forgetting our most vulnerable in all this.”

Two years ago, a fire destroyed the Manitoba Metis Federation Hall. This year’s construction has been postponed because the town of 900, located some 1,600 kilometres north of Winnipeg, can’t get needed equipment until mid-September, when it’s too late to build.

Groups have tried using other buildings as community hubs, and planned scavenger hunts and water-balloon fights through the summer to distract families who can no longer travel by rail to visit relatives.

Finlay says those are Band-Aid solutions. “The problems will keep compounding the longer it takes. That’s the part that’s so baffling: why it wasn’t fixed quickly, and what the holdup is.”

Churchill Mayor Mike Spence hasn’t encouraged residents to file complaints with the regulator, instead putting his trust in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who promised July 28 to find a solution.

Trudeau, however, hasn’t said how he plans to proceed. That compounds stress for Rhoda deMeulles, manager of a Home Hardware location in Churchill. What was formerly a week-long ordering process now takes more than two months since the rail line was shuttered.

“It’s hard to realize what you need all at once,” said deMeulles, whose store is close to running out of construction supplies and cash.

At home, deMeulles worries about the cost of feeding her horse, which has gone up almost six-fold. She bought the Icelandic horse nine years ago (the breed can survive in rough climates).

“Everybody here is getting so depressed,” she said while taking a break from gathering dry grass around town. She joined another horse owner in turning to crowdfunding Sunday out of desperation.

Each horse consumes 10 bales — about 3,600 kilograms — of hay a year, and shipping by rail used to cost $3,200. By air, it will cost $22,000. Both horses need a combined 10 bales to survive the winter, and the owners can’t find a shipping company that will allow livestock on a barge.

“We feel like we’re in jail,” said deMeulles, who still loves the town she adopted 38 years ago. “We need help; we need our rail line back.”

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca