It’s one thing to climb aboard rail-relocation train, quite another to pay for the ride

Anyone who wants a brighter, safer, healthier future for the city of Winnipeg should really want the renewed hopes of rail relocation to finally become reality. And the sooner, the better.

Premier Wab Kinew announced Wednesday the province was going to forge a plan to relocate the Canadian Pacific Kansas City central yards and many of other the lines that run through Winnipeg to a bypass that runs around the city.

This “plan to design a plan” strategy was devised by a task force headed up by former federal MP and cabinet minister Lloyd Axworthy, who in 2024 was given a two-year mandate to find the best way to rid the city of some or all of its rail infrastructure.

For the record, Kinew and Axworthy said a relocation would likely take 20 years to complete, which makes this week’s announcement an important statement of intent, but little more. The sobering reality is that this promising idea has been proposed by political leaders, and then abandoned, for decades.

Hardly anyone disputes the need to relocate the CPKC central rail yards and the 240 kilometres of rail — and 120 crossings — that carry more than 50 trains a day through the city. Relocation would make Winnipeg a transportation super-hub, free up significant parcels of high-value land for other users and eliminate the dangers that come from running dangerous commodities through the centre of a major urban centre.

In short, it has always been a good idea. But it’s also been an incredibly expensive and complex idea.

The first problem is that the railways, in general, aren’t keen on the idea of relocation of any of their assets. There is federal legislation that gives municipal and provincial governments the power to force relocation of railway infrastructure, but only if taxpayers are prepared to pay the costs.

Kinew and Axworthy both conceded the costs of relocation, remediation and redevelopment of rail lands in a city the size of Winnipeg would be measured in billions of dollars. The cost has always, ultimately, dampened the enthusiasm of the many political leaders who advocated for relocation.

Former Winnipeg mayor Glen Murray mused publicly in the early 2000s about “consolidating” rail lines to avoid the need to build expensive bridges or overpasses. And former Winnipeg NDP MP Pat Martin proposed a relocation of CPKC’s central yards in 2008, generating quite a bit of public debate.

In both instances, however, the railways and officials at the city and province balked.

In 2015, then-premier Greg Selinger committed taxpayer money to hire former Quebec premier Jean Charest to head up a rail relocation task force. Selinger had a special connection to the idea, having studied relocation of the central rail yards for his doctorate at the London School of Economics.

Unfortunately, Selinger made his proposal less than a year before he and his government were trounced in the 2016 election. Incoming Tory premier Brian Pallister quickly nixed the idea shortly after taking power, arguing that it was foolish, given the need to stabilize provincial finances.

When the NDP won the 2023 election, Kinew expressed support for the idea, and followed up by hiring Axworthy, a longtime rail relocation advocate, to head up a task force. The pace of Axworthy’s work, however, has been glacial, and this week’s “plan to create a plan” announcement is not going to generate much excitement.

Is there any reason to be more hopeful now?

There has always been a solid urban development argument for relocating the CPKC yards and rail lines. The yards serve as a daunting physical barrier between downtown and the North End. If that land were freed up and remediated, it would, no doubt, boost property values, and that would attract significant interest from private-sector partners.

However, there would be an enormous cost to clear the existing yards and build the new bypass. That is an investment that would have to be made by government before any private-sector money would enter the equation.

Given all that, doing the heavy lifting to clear the yards represents an enormous fiscal risk for Kinew. The premier will, no doubt, seek help from Ottawa, but Prime Minister Mark Carney is currently focused on investing billions of federal dollars in projects of national economic interest: mines, ports, pipelines and an expansion of the nation’s energy grid.

The redevelopment of railway lands might be a game-changer in Winnipeg, but it can’t be considered a project of national economic interest.

Already, and perhaps anticipating Ottawa’s indifference, Kinew and Axworthy are talking about making use of Crown-owned lands for the bypass, including Manitoba Hydro rights of way, which could lower total costs. But there is likely no way to mitigate the other, hard costs of a project this big.

Although it would be easy to despair, there is reason for hope. Projects of this magnitude don’t follow linear paths from conception to execution. Quite often, creative and even revolutionary thinking plays a role in bringing big ideas to fruition.

This is a big idea, but it’s also the right idea for Winnipeg. And anyone concerned about the future of Winnipeg should want this to happen.

dan.lett@freepress.mb.ca