The Port of Churchill, which includes Canada’s most northerly grain export terminal, is for sale.
Merv Tweed, president of OmniTrax Canada, confirmed that the company is looking for a buyer for the port as well as Hudson Bay Rail (HBR), the company that owns and operates the railway line between Churchill and the Pas, Man.
Tweed said OmniTrax has received interest from potential buyers.
“The two businesses will be sold together,” he said.
“We’re hoping to have something done, at least papered to some degree, by the end of the year.”
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Tweed said reduced grain volumes and high operating costs were two factors that influenced the company’s decision to sell.
Grain shipments through the port of Churchill were down sharply this year, the result of a late harvest and fluctuating commodity prices that prompted farmers to delay grain sales and deliveries.
The costs associated with operating a railway that serves a number of small remote communities were also prohibitive.
“After a period of time, we’ve come to realize that Hudson Bay Rail not only (serves Churchill) for grain … but it also serves a lot of communities along the rail line and … the costs of doing that just become unreal at times,” he said.
“We’ve built a lot of efficiencies into our operations and we’ve made a lot of changes for the positive, but we just think that it’s time that someone else maybe takes a chance and takes a look at it.”
Tweed said if a deal to sell the assets cannot be negotiated, the company will explore all options, including closures of the port facility, the rail line or both, he added.
Sinclair Harrison, president of the Hudson Bay Route Association, said until recently, OmniTrax and grain shippers were optimistic about the facility’s future.
However, the momentum appears to have been derailed by low grain volumes this year.
brian.cross@producer.com
