Churchill rail ‘depends on Mother Nature’

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This article was published 05/09/2018 (2623 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — Days after taking over Churchill’s washed-out railway, one of the main shareholders says he can’t guarantee passenger service will resume before the November freeze-up.

Meanwhile, the federal Liberals say they’ll soon reveal whether Ottawa paid Denver-based Omnitrax for the railway and port.

On a Tuesday visit to Churchill, AGT Foods chief executive officer Murad Al-Katib told locals shovels should hit the ground this week, but he warned engineers had only done helicopter visits to portions of the damaged line.

“We’re really hopeful that by next year, everything’s going to be running; it may be sooner,” he said. “I’m being very honest; it really depends on Mother Nature’s kindness this fall.”

Meanwhile, federal International Trade Diversification Minister Jim Carr said he’d soon reveal whether Ottawa paid Omnitrax for the assets.

“We’ll explain the deal in detail to Manitobans,” Carr told the Free Press.

“All of that will come out very soon,” he said in a Tuesday phone interview during a trade mission to Israel.

Ottawa announced Aug. 31 it had brokered a deal to transfer all of Omnitrax’s northern Manitoba holdings to local hands — but did not disclose how much federal money has been put up, whether the Denver-based company got a payment or how much the repairs will cost.

Carr said more detail should come next week. He also confirmed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will be visiting Winnipeg on Sept. 11.

The Hudson Bay Railway, Port of Churchill and the town’s marine tank farm now all fall under ownership of Arctic Gateway, a new consortium involving northern Manitoba communities, Toronto financier Fairfax and Saskatchewan-based grains giant AGT.

Omnitrax won’t say whether it’s walking away with any payout or debts: “The financial terms of the agreement will not be disclosed,” spokeswoman Hilary Sloan wrote.

The Manitoba government confirmed Tuesday it is “not part of the financing arrangements of the Arctic Gateway consortium.”

Ottawa’s partners say the Liberals arranged “a long-term support package” to buy the assets, repair the railway and do “rehabilitation upgrades to the port and the railway assets.” A second phase of repairs will allow heavy grain cars, likely next year, and it appears that has not secured federal funding.

Fairfax and AGT said they now have “a 99-year operating agreement” to operate the railway, and half of the shares of Arctic Gateway. The heads of both firms visited Churchill to speak with locals Tuesday.

Arctic Gateway has awarded a contract to Cando Rail and Paradox Access Solutions.

Al-Katib said AGT has already moved some of its Saskatchewan railway parts to The Pas, with the plan of having the firms use those parts this week along washed-out parts of the railway.

Churchill-area MP Niki Ashton said last week she was “relieved” to hear about the deal and proud of the local buying group, but said taxpayers ought to know how their money is being spent, and whether that included a payment to Omnitrax.

Previously, sources familiar with takeover talks said Omnitrax had extracted favourable conditions, such as limited liability in ongoing litigation.

Carr returns to Winnipeg on Friday, and was on government business in Singapore when the deal was signed. “We’ll make all of the arrangements clearer when I get back to Winnipeg,” he said.

He noted the handover involved multiple stakeholders.

“It was the layers of complexity, both in the formation of the partnership, and in finally negotiating the deal — that took more time than we wanted it to take,” Carr said.

“It was the culmination of a lot of hard work, over a period of time, among many people. But the result was worth the effort.”

Fairfax president Paul Rivett told Churchill residents talks seemed uncertain for months, and he believed they’d outright fallen apart the evening before the deal was signed.

“There’s a lot of people who didn’t want us to succeed here. There’s a lot of people who were just talking dollars, and I guess not remembering people,” he said.

“It’s on all of us to stay together in this, because there will be a lot of people who will not want it to work.”

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca