The stars may finally be aligned for the Port of Churchill. The northern Manitoba port has seen its ups and downs through the years, but a recent announcement by Omnitrax Canada that it wants to ship more commodities through Churchill is timely.
The federal government has announced intentions to boost Canada’s northern presence and has made it a spending priority. As a major shipping route providing access to northern waters and the northwest passage, the port of Churchill has potential to play a major role for Ottawa, Omnitrax and western Canadian farmers.
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The signs are there.
Omnitrax, which owns the rail line that serves the port, as well as the port itself, has its eyes on increased mining activities in Nunavut. That activity will require more shipping of supplies into that region and other parts of the north.
More importantly for farmers, the company is emphasizing that it wants to attract more shipments from other countries and use the port to ship more grain.
Climate change predictions suggest there will be greater ice melt in the Arctic, and many experts predict the northern shipping season will be extended as a result.
That could mean additional opportunities to explore natural resources in areas previously unreachable.
Churchill offers the best access Canada has to northern waterways that could encourage greater resource exploration and related domestic use or trade.
For western Canadian farmers, Churchill is an alternative to the West Coast and the St. Lawrence for commodity shipping.
The port has emphasized its value recently by receiving fertilizer shipments from Russia at lower freight cost, which translates into lower costs to farmers.
Port operators say they believe there is greater potential to be realized, with more fertilizer coming in and more grain going out. Omnitrax vice-president Pat Avery believes the port could accommodate as much as 800,000 tonnes of board grains annually and another 100,000 in canola and pulse crops.
Churchill offers the shortest route to shipping to Europe and to many central and South American locations, which could lead to savings for buyers as well as farmers.
But there are challenges too.
Large grain companies have their own export terminals, none of them at Churchill, and can maximize profits by using their facilities as much as possible. Few agricultural businesses and entities other than the Canadian Wheat Board have shown inclination to use the port. Last year, all grain exports shipped through Churchill, 529,300 tonnes, were CWB grains. The last time non-CWB grain was shipped through Churchill was 2006.
There’s work to be done in increasing port customers and tonnage totals.Otherwise, Churchill’s role in grain shipping could be drastically jeopardized if the CWB loses its sales monopoly on western wheat and export barley, as the Conservative government says it intends.
Whether or not that happens, the government still has to consider the port’s future and the role it could play in northern development. Churchill could assist in increasing Canada’s northern presence and solidify its claims to resource-rich territory.
There are other challenges: getting Churchill included in calculations that determine the railways’ revenue caps; including it in the multi-car rebate program; improving insurance costs for sailing through Hudson’s Bay; and developing an independent study that spells out the potential pros and cons and possible development projects that could make the port more attractive to shippers.
With that done, Churchill could be well-positioned to play a critical role for years to come.
Bruce Dyck, Terry Fries, Barb Glen, D’Arce McMillan and Ken Zacharias collaborate in the writing of Western Producer editorials.
