REGINA – The Saskatchewan government has committed $250,000 to the Gateway North Marketing Agency.
Transportation minister Andy Renaud said the province will provide $50,000 each year over five years to help promote increased use of the Port of Churchill.
“That funding would have to be matched by industry, by farm groups, by farmers, because we believe that we need grassroots support and industry support in order to make the port viable,” Renaud said in an interview.
The first government contribution will be made as soon as the private sector funding is in place, he said.
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Manitoba had earlier committed $250,000 to the agency, established in January to promote Churchill. Ottawa has provided a two-year $540,000 loan.
Renaud said the Saskatchewan government is confident greater use of the port will benefit the province.
“We believe that we have to prove that we can in fact ship a lot more bulk grain through the port,” he said. “There is a possibility of two-way shipments, both exports and imports through the port. There are other commodities like special crops that we believe have some benefit by using the Port of Churchill.”
Six people have been added to the agency’s board.
William Bailey of Regina, vice-president and chief technical officer for IPSCO, the largest steel manufacturing company in Western Canada, will chair the board.
Also named to the board were Ed Schreyer, former premier of Manitoba, governor general of Canada and high commissioner to Australia; Darrel Cunningham, former Saskatchewan agriculture minister; Hugh Campbell, president of Terramax Corp. in Saskatchewan; Edward J. Huebert, executive vice-president of the Mining Association of Manitoba; and Norman Kirkness, chief of Fox Lake First Nation in Manitoba.
