Merv Tweed, please call home

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 24/08/2017 (2978 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Has anybody seen Merv Tweed? If you see him, can you give him the phone number for the people of Churchill? We haven’t heard from the president of Omnitrax since… we can’t remember how long it’s been. It hasn’t been for lack of trying. All those grain farmers who want to use Churchill to get their crops to market also wanted to talk about getting the rail line repaired, but he hasn’t answered their calls.

We don’t even think Prime Minister Justin Trudeau knows where he is. The PM touched down in Manitoba on his summer travels to meet Premier Brian Pallister. He said that, “Omnitrax has legal obligations to clean up and repair the tracks,” in Churchill. But he wouldn’t say whether he planned to pursue legal action against the company. And he didn’t appear to meet or talk with Omnitrax’s president.

If you are avoiding Justin Trudeau — with whom everybody seems to want a selfie — then you really are very well hidden. The prime minister did find Churchill Mayor Mike Spence to talk by phone. They also agreed that Omnitrax needs to either fix the rail line or step out of the way and let somebody else do it.

So, what do Omnitrax and Merv Tweed say about this? Omnitrax owns the mothballed Port of Churchill and the rail line that has fallen into disrepair. In case anybody hasn’t noticed, summer is slipping pretty quickly into fall, and winter comes early up here.

Where exactly is Merv Tweed? When he was the MP for Brandon-Souris, he was like mosquitoes in July. Everywhere. He spoke numerous times in the House of Commons about Churchill, once saying, “the Port of Churchill will remain the Prairies’ Arctic gateway to the world.” Now that he’s taken over Omnitrax and has responsibility for the main economic driver of this community, he has become invisible — except for an overheard comment made to a farmer, where he seemed to suggest that Manitobans were ungrateful for what Omnitrax has done for the community and the province.

We’re grateful, Merv. It’s just this little thing about jobs, no rail service and winter coming that we’d like to talk to you about. For our part, it’s not for lack of trying. We’ve been asking to meet since the decision was made to shut down the port. On numerous occasions we’ve written and called. The response has been to shift and slide and run and hide. That’s simply not good enough.

We also don’t want another corporate response from Denver via Peter Touesnard, the chief commercial officer for Omnitrax. We’re sure Mr. Touesnard is a great guy, but he doesn’t live here and doesn’t have as much stake in this issue as the people of Churchill. We want to hear from Merv about the local response to our local crisis. This may not be an emergency situation at Omnitrax’s head office, but it is here.

We’re making this public appeal for information leading to the spotting and holding of Merv Tweed for the purpose of getting answers about their plans for the rail line repairs, such as when they will happen. And for their future plans for the Port of Churchill. We don’t want to harm him or harass him. We only want answers and information. We would like to invite Merv Tweed to a public meeting in Churchill, where he could give his side of the story and answer questions from the community members who have been devastated by the loss of their economic engine and, now, their essential transportation route in and out of Churchill.

We have everyone else in this community on board. We have the mayor and council working hard to find a solution. We have senators and First Nations leaders, grain farmers and shippers calling for a solution. We even have a rare agreement between the province of Manitoba and the federal government on the need to fix the rail line. It’s time that Omnitrax got with the program.

We need to hear answers from the company’s local leader. And we need those answers today.

Please help us find Merv Tweed. And wherever you are, Merv, please call home.

Marianne Hladun is the executive vice-president for the Public Service Allliance of Canada’s prairie region.