Poilievre floats oil exports out of Churchill port

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This article was published 29/03/2025 (218 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has promised to further expand the Port of Churchill and come up with a plan to export oil and other products out of Manitoba’s Arctic seaport.

Poilievre made the pledge at a campaign stop in Winnipeg Saturday morning — the first visit to the city by a federal party leader since the writ was dropped on March 23. Canadians go to the polls on April 28.

Poilievre was asked whether his government would honour federal funding commitments made by the Liberal government for upgrades to Winnipeg’s north end sewage plant and the Port of Churchill’s infrastructure.

“We’ll honour those commitments, but more importantly, we’ll get it done,” Poilievre told reporters at Fast Air Executive Aviation Services near Winnipeg’s international airport.

“Right now, infrastructure projects are ensnared in endless delay and bureaucracy, so it takes years to get the permitting.”

He argued his government would make the infrastructure upgrades at the Port of Churchill and the plant go ahead quicker than a fourth consecutive Liberal government.

Poilievre said a Conservative government would implement a “one-and-done” process for such projects, with one environmental review and one application for federal approval.

The federal and provincial governments promised close to $80 million last month in funding for the Port of Churchill and for the restoration of the rail line.

That money came on top of a $60-million commitment from the two governments last year to begin port upgrades and finish the stabilization of the Hudson Bay Railway.

The feds have spent $277 million over the past six years to restore the railway and port. The rail line runs from The Pas to Churchill.

Churchill has Canada’s only deep-water Arctic seaport connected by rail. Politicians across political lines have said building up the port will create a new trade route to global markets and demonstrate to the U.S. that Manitoba has a presence in the north.

The port has mostly been used for shipping grain and supply ships for northern communities but began to ship minerals last year.

“I think we need to come up with a plan to export our oil at the Port of Churchill,” Poilievre told reporters. “Of course, that could be done either by rail or pipeline.”

He argued oil exports won’t go through Manitoba’s northern port unless Bill C-69 is repealed. The bill, enacted in 2019 under the Liberal government, allows federal regulators to consider potential environmental impacts of infrastructure and resource projects when approving such projects.

A Supreme Court of Canada decision in 2023 found the law to be largely unconstitutional, though the court found Ottawa had the authority to conduct environmental assessments, provided they don’t infringe on the constitutional division of powers.

Former Alberta premier Jason Kenney dubbed the law the “no more pipelines act” and his government launched a constitutional challenge.

Poilievre later made similar comments at a well-attended campaign rally at a warehouse on Wellington Avenue, promising to boost exporting at the northern port.

Meanwhile, the federal Liberal government has promised a total $166 million in support to the multibillion-dollar upgrade of the north end sewage treatment plant, a three-phase megaproject that has drastically increased its estimated cost.

Liberal Environment Minister Terry Duguid increased the federal commitment by $16 million last month, up from $150 million promised by the federal Liberals last year.

Poilievre said his government would uphold the funding agreement.

The municipal, provincial and federal governments had a funding deal to complete the second phase of the project for $553 million, before the price soared to $1.035 billion.

The overall upgrade project is intended to reduce nitrogen and phosphorus in the water released into the Red River, to protect the health of Lake Winnipeg, and is required under a provincial Environment Act licence.

A City of Winnipeg public service report last June suggested the price of the plant upgrade had increased to about $3 billion.

At Fast Air’s hangar on Saturday, flanked by aircraft mechanics in high-visibility jackets and local Conservative candidates, Poilievre also promised his government would allow trades workers to write off the full cost of food, transport and accommodation, when travelling more than 120 kilometres to a job site, on their taxes.

Travelling workers are currently able to write off up to $4,000 annually for such costs.

Further, the Conservative leader pledged, his government would cut writeoffs on private jet travel, with corporations only able to write off the equivalent of commercial flights.

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Local support for the Conservatives has fallen drastically in recent opinion polling, with the Liberal Party of Canada, helmed by new leader Mark Carney, gaining significantly since the departure of former prime minister Justin Trudeau.

A Free Press-Probe Research poll, released March 20, found Liberal support in Winnipeg jumped from 24 per cent in December to 54 per cent among decided and leaning voters.

In the rest of the province, the poll found, 44 per cent of decided and leaning voters in Manitoba would cast their ballots for Liberal candidates, compared to 19 per cent in December.

The Conservatives were found to be at 31 per cent support in Winnipeg and 42 per cent across the province.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca

Erik Pindera
Reporter

Erik Pindera is a reporter for the Free Press, mostly focusing on crime and justice. The born-and-bred Winnipegger attended Red River College Polytechnic, wrote for the community newspaper in Kenora, Ont. and reported on television and radio in Winnipeg before joining the Free Press in 2020.  Read more about Erik.

Every piece of reporting Erik produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.