Kinew says PM signals support for ‘Port of Churchill Plus’

Premier Wab Kinew said there’s “a window of great opportunity” for Manitoba after Prime Minister Mark Carney said a Port of Churchill expansion, an icebreaker for Hudson Bay and an all-weather road made the cut for the second round of nation-building projects.

“I think it’s really exciting for us as a province to be able to play a role in building up Canada’s economy for the next stage of us pushing back against Donald Trump,” Kinew told reporters Thursday after the prime minister announced the first five projects earmarked for fast-track approval.

They include a first-of-its kind small modular reactor in Clarington, Ont., a new copper and zinc mine in Saskatchewan and an expansion of the Red Chris Mine copper operation in northwestern B.C.

At the announcement in Edmonton, Carney said he expects he’ll announce a second list of projects as early as the Grey Cup, to be held in Winnipeg on Nov. 16.

The Manitoba project on deck includes upgrades to the Port of Churchill and rail line, an all-weather road to expand trade corridors, marine ice-breaking capacity and a new energy corridor.

The plan to turn Churchill into a four-season, multi-use Canadian port will increase and diversify trade with Europe and other partners, Carney said.

It will be developed in close co-operation with a new Crown-Indigenous corporation in Manitoba, the prime minister said.

“There’s a lot of work that’s going to have to happen,” Kinew said about the Manitoba project that has been labelled by the federal government as the “Port of Churchill Plus.”

“You’ve got to think about wildlife, environment — our Indigenous partner governments are going to have a lot of input in this process,” the premier said.

“But to see the prime minister of Canada… talk about Manitoba having a potential project of national importance, I don’t know if we’ve had that since Manitoba entered Confederation or perhaps since the railroads were constructed,” Kinew said.

“So we’re in a really exciting period where we have a great window of opportunity open, and a lot of work left to do,” the premier said.

Tory Leader Obby Khan cast doubt on the project.

“I’ll believe it when I see it — when I see shovels in the ground, when I see a commitment of funding, announcements of jobs, of actual tangible commitment by the federal government and this premier,” Khan said.

He blamed the NDP government for Manitoba not being included in the first round of nation-building projects.

“The first group of projects has already met many of the required regulatory standards, indicating that Manitoba has not,” Khan said.

Manitoba may not be included on the next list of major projects, Khan said

Liberal MP Terry Duguid, who was in Edmonton for the announcement, said he is certain it will.

“We have the only deep-water port in northern Canada,” the member for Winnipeg South said Thursday. “I think we are going to finally see Churchill reach its potential.”

So could some of the “poorest kids in Canada,” Kinew said, thanks to the inclusion of an all-weather road in the Port of Churchill Plus proposal.

“How are we gonna build the infrastructure to connect the poorest people in our province to opportunity? That is an all- weather road,” the premier told reporters.

An all-weather road network would cost $5 billion in a province with a yearly infrastructure budget of $540 million, take 10 years to complete, “and nothing else gets built,” he said.

“If we’re constructing the next generation of port and other infrastructure, if we’re building an energy corridor, we’re talking about tens of billions of dollars of investment,” Kinew said. “Now all of a sudden, a $5-billion road network is in the realm of the possible.”

The premier said environmental concerns about a natural gas “energy” corridor must be balanced with economic concerns.

Such investments need to be balanced with research investment, said Mario Pinto, University of Manitoba’s vice-president of research (international).

“This will be transformative for Manitoba and the prairie economy,” Pinto said Thursday. “I’m very encouraged by the announcement, but also take very seriously the need to do further research to make sure that we do this in a respectful way for the environment,” said Pinto who estimates it will cost $5 million a year.

“We know the research we’re doing at University of Manitoba and with our collaborators around climate change and wildlife in the areas will provide the answers that are critical to moving this project forward in a respectful and efficient way,” Pinto said.

Chris Avery, CEO of Arctic Gateway Group that owns and operates the port on Hudson Bay and railway that connects it to North America, said there’s tremendous opportunity.

“We’re in the business of building trade and enabling infrastructure,” Avery said Thursday.

Expanding the port as a northern trade route for Canada “is an exciting time for us,” said the head of the company owned by 29 First Nations and 12 northern communities.

An expansion that’s underway to handle more commodities than just grain and zinc concentrate will be “turbo-charged” once it’s on Ottawa’s major projects list and greenlit for investors, Avery said.

It’s looking at shipping potash and silica sand out of Churchill while receiving agricultural products such as fertilizer from Africa and the Middle East, for example, he said.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca