The Canadian Icebreaker and research ship Amundsen sits at Port of Churchill in Manitoba in 2018. Arctic Gateway Group, the company that owns the port, expects to ship over 20,000 tonnes of zinc concentrate to markets in Europe this summer, CEO Chris Avery says.JOHN WOODS/The Canadian Press
The operator of Manitoba’s Port of Churchill had envisioned it as a growing hub to bolster trade in Western Canadian commodities even before U.S. President Donald Trump waged a tariff war against his country’s northern neighbour and mused about annexation.
Now, driven by the trade tension, expanding the operation in Churchill, Man., on Hudson Bay has taken on new urgency, and become a focus in national discussions about spending billions of dollars on projects that diversify markets and contribute to economic resilience, said the head of the company that owns the port and railway that serves it.
“I don’t think President Trump is necessarily just looking at [Canada] because we’re nice people. He’s looking at us for our resources and so on, so we need to assert our sovereignty in the North,” Chris Avery, chief executive officer of Arctic Gateway Group, said in an interview.
Beefing up the port’s infrastructure and connected rail facilities to handle much more cargo is very much in the national interest and would meet all the criteria set out by Prime Minister Mark Carney to fit into the list of projects that take priority, Mr. Avery said.
To be considered for the list of what are being called nation-building projects, major development proposals must be shown to strengthen Canadian autonomy, resilience and security; support economic growth; have a high likelihood of getting off the ground; offer clean growth potential; and have buy-in from Indigenous communities.
Arctic Gateway Group has owned the port and the Hudson Bay Railway, which extends to Churchill from The Pas, Man., since buying it in 2018 from the previous U.S. owner, which had let it fall into disrepair. The company, owned by 29 First Nations as well as local governments in Manitoba and Nunavut, has upgraded the rail and port facilities.
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On Tuesday, Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew and Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe signed a memorandum of understanding to examine bolstering shipments through Churchill in efforts to establish a northern trade corridor. The governments said their agreement is aimed at strengthening supply chains, boosting regional economies, cutting costs and diversifying market access.
Increased access to deep-water facilities on Hudson Bay would connect producers, processors and exporters in Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the Arctic trade corridor. With climate change, the shipping season, currently about four months annually, is lengthening. It could be extended quickly through deployment of icebreakers, Mr. Kinew has said.
The concept is partly driven by a national push to strengthen economic ties globally, shift a lot of trade away from the United States and become more self-reliant through developments that could include opening critical minerals mines, modernizing electricity grids, and expanding transport infrastructure and ports.
Churchill’s expansion to ship more commodities would not be from a standing start, said Mr. Avery, a former executive with several airlines.
“With an MOU typically, there are a lot of studies and evaluations and so on, and there will be that. But what is unique about us is that we’re really very much up and running and operational,” he said.
“We have the railway that’s up and running. It’s in better condition than it’s been for the past 30 years. We’re investing in the port. This summer, we expect to export over 20,000 tonnes of zinc concentrate out to global markets in Europe. We have Arctic supply ships coming in to bring goods up to the Kivalliq region in Nunavut.”
Arctic Gateway is currently making investments to improve and modernize infrastructure at the port and along the railway’s more than 1,000 kilometres of track. Last week, it announced it had completed a critical mineral storage facility and said it is planning refacing at the wharf to improve safety as shipping traffic increases.
The scale of future investment will depend on the range of commodities that would flow through the port. That could include minerals and agricultural products from Manitoba and Saskatchewan, such as critical minerals and potash, and potentially, oil from the Western provinces.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has spoken about Churchill being a future export point for her province’s crude, and Mr. Kinew has said oil could be among commodities shipped from there.
The key, Mr. Avery said, is providing a northern option to Canadian shippers, which in recent years have been hamstrung by such events as flooding in the Fraser Valley of British Columbia, wildfires in Alberta, and labour disputes at railways and ports across the country.
“For a country the size of Canada to have port optionality just makes sense, and certainly a port that allows us to diversify our trade away from the U.S. and gives us even greater access to European, African and Middle East and South American markets,” he said.