Canada waking up, looking North to access global markets

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 22/03/2025 (227 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s taken a would-be U.S. autocrat making noises about Canada becoming the 51st state to awaken the country’s focus on some things Canadians have taken for granted.

If, in fact, its free trade environment with the U.S. is coming to an end, then all that talk, for decades, about diversifying Canada’s trading partners is going to have to become action.

On Friday, the federal government announced another $175 million in financial commitment to Arctic Gateway Group (over five years). It comes just a month-and-a-half since teaming up with the province of Manitoba for an $80-million funding round.

“Trade infrastructure and transportation corridors enable Canada to get its products to global markets. That is why the government of Canada is making investments to open new potential markets through the Arctic and secure reliable surface transportation through northern Manitoba,” Transport Canada said in a release.

This is the narrative that has been swirling around the Port of Churchill and the Hudson Bay Railway for many years. Yet when the winter melt so damaged the railway in 2017, it took more than a year for enough support could be mustered to get it operational again.

In an upcoming op-ed, Chris Avery, the energetic new CEO of AGG, wrote: “The Arctic Gateway Group spoke about the importance of the Port of Churchill and the Hudson Bay Railway to Canada long before the current trade war with the U.S. and the rhetoric of Canada becoming the 51st state coming from (U.S. President) Donald Trump.”

Northern Manitoba is sparsely populated and the winter weather can be brutal. Regardless of the theoretical value of the asset, Canadian governments have long felt they could politically get away with ignoring Churchill — and the North, in general.

Since the 2012 demise of the Canadian Wheat Board, which had a long-standing commitment to ship certain quantities out of Churchill, the deep water port has had a hard time drumming up business.

Avery is slowly, but surely, making some breakthroughs. A shipment of zinc concentrate from a HudBay Minerals Inc.-owned Manitoba mine last year will be followed by at least one more shipment this year of twice the amount.

He recently signed a partnership with a Saskatchewan fertilizer company seeking international imports and exports.

AGG has also done the hard work to solidify the integrity of the rail line, allowing trains to move a little quicker across the muskeg and making incremental improvements in the overall industrial business case for the rail line and port.

“This is an important commitment to the Port of Churchill and Hudson Bay Railway, and a huge boost for Arctic Gateway’s operations. We’re proud to be part of the Canadian solution to diversify trade enabling infrastructure and provide Canadian industry with optionality and improved, made-in-Canada access to global markets,” Avery said of Friday’s announcement.

But for it to truly be part of that solution, it will take much more investment than the $175 million, which has been preceded by about $277 over the previous few years.

Liberal Leader Mark Carney’s stop in Iqaluit (on the way back from his first foreign trip as prime minister) to reiterate the government’s intention to invest $680 million in military and civilian infrastructure in Nunavut was likely timed to bolster domestic spirits, create some political capital and signal to Arctic-curious regimes around the world, despite what it looks like, Canada has not abandoned the North.

It is such a vast expanse, Churchill is too far south to become a strategic port for the Canadian military, retired air force major general Colin Keiver said at a recent talk about Arctic sovereignty in Winnipeg.

Earlier this week Perimeter Aviation, the Winnipeg-based regional airline that services 28 mostly remote First Nations communities, opened a brand-new $20-million terminal.

It replaces a cramped, uncomfortable one its 250,000 annual passengers had used for years.

Perimeter has a proper business case, track record of profitability and is a rare southern business that has found success in the North. That’s the sort of dynamic that needs to be encouraged for Canada’s Arctic sovereignty to be truly sustainable.

Not only do the people who live in northern Canada deserves something nice, they deserve the serious acknowledgement the North, too, is actually part of the country.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca