WINNIPEG – Upgrading the port of Churchill should not be the sole responsibility of producers, farm leaders and industry groups told the federal minister of agriculture at a closed meeting here last week.
In the past few weeks, there have been rumors that $27 million for the port and rail line would come out of a $300-million adjustment fund earmarked to help farmers pay full freight for grain transportation.
“I think the group around that table threw cold water all over that,” said Ray Howe, chair of Prairie Pools Inc. and first vice-president of Saskatchewan Wheat Pool. Howe said the group agreed that the cost of revitalizing Churchill “should be something that is shared by taxpayers right across Canada, and not just the grain industry.”
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Les Jacobson, president of Keystone Agricultural Producers, a Manitoba farm lobby group, said he felt Goodale confirmed the $300 million would be coming west, but not north to Churchill.
Larry Maguire, president of the Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association, said Goodale told the group the adjustment fund would be used to deal with seaway pooling issues, short-line rail, branch-line abandonment and losses to the alfalfa dehydrating business.
Howe said the group told the minister that $300 million is not enough to cover all the adjustments that will take place in a short period of time.
“We said it should at least be a flexible amount so that if (the government) runs out of money, it doesn’t mean you quit addressing the issues that have been brought up,” Howe said.
