Latest Churchill derailment no shock

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 09/07/2018 (2906 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There were a number of reactions to last week’s news that negotiations to transfer ownership of the Hudson Bay Railway to a consortium with Manitoba ties had fallen apart.

Surely to goodness, surprise was not one of them.

Frustration, anger, resignation and perhaps even a bit of embarrassment of the “fool me way more than twice” variety were to be expected. But given the track record of the corporate entity at the centre of the controversy that has left Churchill and its residents stranded for nearly 14 months, it’s simply unfathomable that anyone was caught off guard by this latest unravelling of efforts to resurrect the rail line.

The announcement that talks aimed at shifting ownership of the troubled rail line, along with the Port of Churchill, to local interests had run aground came from Omnitrax, the Denver-based firm that is the owner of both (and has long been the bane of all Manitobans not named Merv Tweed, the former MP who became president of Omnitrax’s Canadian operation).

A tentative deal — announced in May — would have seen Omnitrax transfer ownership of the railway and port to a consortium consisting of Manitoban groups OneNorth and Missinippi Rail and the Toronto firm Fairfax, which partially owns the Saskatchewan railways held by AGT Foods. But Tuesday’s statement by Omnitrax said the two sides had been unable to find common ground on “certain key issues.”

The Free Press cited sources familiar with the talks who said Omnitrax had been reluctant to either hold or pay for any of its liabilities in northern Manitoba, adding that it remains unclear whether the company had been seeking a payment, intended to hold on to some profitable assets, or wanted to walk away without paying its debts.

Omnitrax would neither confirm nor deny those assertions.

The one truly laughable passage in an otherwise downbeat Omnitrax statement said this: “This outcome is unexpected and very unfortunate.” It was followed by a rote apology to those who depended on the railway before its May 2017 washout.

Those who have followed the ongoing Churchill/Omnitrax debacle for more than a year would be justifiably skeptical of the notion that the company views as “unfortunate” yet another turn of events that allows it to do nothing and spend even less in aid of Churchill’s isolated denizens. And they would likely just admire the out-and-out cheek required by Omnitrax to declare the scuttled negotiation “unexpected.”

It has often been suggested that corporations have no conscience, so it would be foolish to expect Omnitrax to be moved by statements such as “This town can’t do it” and “We are not going to make it,” which were offered by Churchill residents in the wake of Tuesday’s announcement.

But one has to wonder what it would take for Mr. Tweed — who once swore a solemn oath to represent Manitobans’ interests in the federal political arena — to declare his current employer’s actions unconscionable. And one might also be inclined to ponder the province’s decision to employ the flimsy but convenient election-blackout-policy dodge to avoid commenting on the beleaguered northern Manitoba community’s latest setback.

Omnitrax’s utterly predictable statement this week, which was fully reflective of the pattern of inaction it has demonstrated by seemingly finding as many ways as possible to evade commitments and avoid any further financial outlay in Manitoba, has once again been met mostly with muted words of comfort and the sound of shuffling feet at both the federal and provincial levels.

That, also, is not a surprising development.