Ottawa claims ‘solution is imminent’ in restoring Churchill rail line

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 29/05/2018 (2305 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA – More than a year after the rail tracks washed out, cutting off a vital lifeline for northern Manitoba communities, the federal government has announced a major step towards transferring Churchill’s railway and port into local hands.

A northern Manitoba consortium and a Toronto financial firm have signed an agreement in principle with Denver-based Omnitrax, which owns both assets, Ottawa announced Wednesday night.

The agreement aims to restore railway service to Churchill “before winter 2018,” the federal government said, adding a “solution is imminent.”

While the financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed, three sources involved in negotiations (who spoke on the condition of anonymity) said it will result in all of Omnitrax’s northern Manitoba operations changing hands.

Sources said the agreement will be finalized by next week.

“The people of northern Manitoba have long understood the value of the rail line. This agreement in principle allows those most affected to have a direct stake in the future and long-term interests of their communities,” Minister of Natural Resources Jim Carr said in a statement.

Since September, a federal negotiator has been leading talks with Missinippi Rail and One North, two groups that joined forces to take over the mothballed port and the Hudson Bay Railway, which washed out in May 2017. The agreement involves AGT Foods, a Saskatchewan grain company bankrolled by the billion-dollar Toronto investment firm Fairfax. AGT Foods also owns and operates short-line railways.

“Over the last six months, we have been working diligently with our many partners to come together, develop a business plan and satisfy the principles for successful new ownership,” Fairfax president Paul Rivett said in a statement. “The time has come for us to work together in fulfilling what many of us have long believed to be possible: to operate the railway and port in sustainable ways for the betterment of our communities.”

Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs Grand Chief Arlen Dumas, who launched Missinippi Rail and continued to take part in the talks when the bid changed its leadership, said Wednesday the agreement was a done deal.

He also highlighted the efforts of “obstructionist, faceless bureaucrats,” at both the provincial and federal levels, who he claimed were responsible for slowing down progress on the file.

“This deal is a testament to the resilience of the people of the North. We don’t take no for an answer. We try to find solutions, and I’m glad our political leaders have backed us on acquiring the port and rail line,” Dumas said. “It’s going to take a concerted effort from everybody involved, but we’re going to make this a successful venture.”

The arrangement includes the active participation of 30 First Nations and 11 non-First Nations communities in northern Manitoba, as well as seven Kivalliq communities in western Nunavut, the government said.

The rail line is a major piece of transportation infrastructure for northern Manitoba, and has left many communities it serves effectively cut off since the tracks washed out last year. In recent interviews with the Free Press, Churchill residents described feeling forgotten and ignored by the federal government, due to slow progress on repairing the tracks.

That should soon change, according to Opaskwayak Cree Nation Chief Christian Sinclair, who is also co-chairman of One North. Sinclair said the new stakeholders will be working to get the rail line repaired as soon as possible.

“For generations, many First Nations families worked on this line. They did construction and maintenance when it was under (the ownership of the Canadian National Railway). Generations have worked on it, it’s been a lifeline for shipping supplies, transporting, and the economic impact it has to Churchill,” he said.

“We’re going to get it up and running again, hopefully, sooner than winter 2018. There’s grain that needs to move through there. We’re also looking at long-term opportunities for future growth.”

NDP MP Niki Ashton, whose riding covers Manitoba’s north, was unavailable for comment Wednesday night.

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca

ryan.thorpe@freepress.mb.ca