Manitoba signs deal with Saskatchewan to bolster trade through Port of Churchill By: Carol Sanders Posted: 7:34 PM CDT Tuesday, Jul. 22, 2025

Manitoba’s experience as a leader in reconciliation will give it a leg up when it comes time for Canada to fast-track megaprojects, Premier Wab Kinew said Tuesday after signing an agreement with Saskatchewan to expand trade through the Port of Churchill.

“We’re working a ton on making sure we have consensus with the Indigenous nations for the megaprojects that we want to pursue to build up the Manitoba and Canadian economy,” Kinew said.

Twenty-nine First Nations and 12 northern communities own the Arctic Gateway Group, which operates the Port of Churchill and the Hudson Bay Railway that connects it to the rest of the continent.

“This ability to get to tidewater and seemingly having the ability to open that up, maybe, year-round because of newer ships that we have access to today, is really exciting for Manitoba,” Kinew told reporters via a Zoom call from Huntsville, Ont. There, Canada’s first ministers are gathering to discuss a strategy to respond to the trade war launched by U.S. President Donald Trump.

The memorandum of understanding Kinew signed with Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe on Tuesday says the Arctic Gateway Group will invest in port and rail assets and lengthen the shipping season, which typically runs from July to November, to support increased freight capacity.

Chris Avery, the chief executive officer of AGG, said they’re working with the University of Manitoba and other academic and private-sector groups to update data about the shipping season, which has been getting longer over time.

“What the University of Manitoba tells us is that based on their data from over the past 40 years and what they see in their studies of the sea ice — they expect that the shipping seasons can be lengthened already without icebreakers or anything else, given climate change.”

He said U of M is gathering and studying the data, which can be shared with shippers and insurance companies, he said.

“One of the impediments to extending the shipping season is because they’re working off of old historical data of the shipping season and the ice patterns and so on.”

New data from the U of M indicates the shipping season will be lengthened to as much as six months without the use of icebreakers, Avery said.

In February, Manitoba announced $36.4 million would be given to AGG over two years for capital infrastructure projects at the port. The memo of understanding says the province will try to secure federal infrastructure funding and regulatory support to improve connectivity to northern markets, a news release said.

“When we’re talking about nation-building, if we help Alberta, Saskatchewan, our other neighbors and fellow provinces and territories access the European Union, that can be really good for all of us.”–Wab Kinew

The five-year plan requires Saskatchewan to “mobilize” commodity producers and exporters through its trade offices and regional industry partners, the release said. Streamlining access to ports such as Churchill will allow for greater access to international markets, Moe said in the release.

“It helps us to unlock mining in the north, more agricultural exports in the south, manufacturing products right across our whole province,” Kinew told reporters Tuesday. “When we’re talking about nation-building, if we help Alberta, Saskatchewan, our other neighbors and fellow provinces and territories access the European Union, that can be really good for all of us.”

On Tuesday, Manitoba did not sign an MOU with Ontario, Saskatchewan and Alberta to use Ontario steel to build an oil and gas pipeline and a port on James Bay as part of a national energy corridor. Manitoba Progressive Conservative Leader Obby Khan said Manitoba “missed out on a much, much larger opportunity.”

“Why wouldn’t you negotiate on the ground floor for a project that could bring massive economic opportunities and prosperity to the province?” Khan asked.

Kinew said he’s had “excellent meetings” with the three premiers involved and that he didn’t sign their MOU because Manitoba doesn’t have the needed consensus from its Indigenous nations to do so.

“Our approach in Manitoba involves extensive leg work with Indigenous nations at the front end of the project process,” Manitoba’s first First Nations premier said.

“I believe spending that time to build consensus and then to invest the energy necessary to maintain that consensus throughout the construction phase of a project, will actually see us get to the finish line as quickly or quicker than everyone else.”

Kinew said the province hasn’t announced a new megaproject proposal yet.

“This is work that we’re undertaking carefully, strategically and quietly behind the scenes,” the premier said.

“We would love to have the federal government as an enthusiastic partner (but)…the partners that we need are the collective Indigenous nations of Manitoba that are represented by governments.”

Kinew said he doesn’t want Manitoba to be pitted against other provinces, but noted that Churchill has the advantage over James Bay because it is a long-running northern, deep-water port with infrastructure and Indigenous partners.

A supply chain expert who teaches at the U of M Asper School of Business said the proposals for a major port at the far south end of James Bay in Ontario centre on the community of Moosonee, that has port facilities for barges, but not ships that require deep water.

Like Churchill, it has rail access but no road, said Robert Parsons. The proposal to develop the James Bay port into an energy corridor “is really more on the wish-list side,” he said.

Parsons compared it to NeeStanNan’s proposal to develop a liquefied natural gas terminal at Port Nelson on Hudson Bay in Manitoba. “Both will require quite a bit of work.”

The chief of one of the First Nations behind the Port Nelson LNG proposal welcomed Manitoba’s agreement with Saskatchewan to bolster the Port of Churchill.

“Churchill has always been there and we support Churchill and we’re also part owners of the railway,” said Clarence Easter of Chemawawin Cree Nation, one of 10 First Nations behind the NeeStaNan energy corridor.

NeeStaNan has been licensed by the federal energy regulator to explore the development of exporting liquefied natural gas. Easter said he supports federal legislation to fast-track infrastructure projects such as energy corridors.

“We cannot keep doing things that we’ve been doing in the past because it hasn’t worked before… We can’t keep counting on federal handouts, provincial handouts to survive and keep living the way we’ve been living,” the chief said.

“The opportunity is there for us to step up.”

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca