Mixed messages rekindle fears in Churchill

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This article was published 20/06/2017 (2500 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — As Churchill entered its 30th day without its rail lifeline, the northern Manitoba town faced mixed messages Wednesday from Ottawa — stoking fears its 900 residents would be denied the food subsidy extended to most fly-in communities.

The federal government later clarified it hasn’t yet made a decision on the issue.

Hudson Bay Railway owner Omnitrax Canada indefinitely suspended operations on the line June 9 after a heavy spring melt damaged the track at multiple locations, ending shipments on May 23.

Residents and officials in Churchill subsequently asked to join the subsidy program, as the already high cost of food in the town located 1,600 kilometres north of Winnipeg balloons to include the cost of freight being flown in.

A Wednesday afternoon email from Valérie Haché, a spokeswoman for the Department of Indigenous and Northern Affairs, which manages the Nutrition North program, was blunt: “Churchill has not qualified for the food subsidy.”

The message perplexed Churchill Mayor Mike Spence. “It’s still on the table,” he said. “That’s bull.”

Food retailer North West Company, which runs a store in Churchill, also said the government told it the decision was still under consideration.

Hours later, James Fitz-Morris, the department’s top spokesperson, apologized for the confusion and told the Free Press the government hasn’t yet decided whether to add Churchill to the program on an emergency basis.

“The minister does have the authority to add them, regardless of what the other criteria are. That’s still being evaluated,” he said, adding northern affairs is gathering information on potential costs and needs. “It has not been decided yet; it has not been rejected. We are working on it.”

NDP MP Niki Ashton (Churchill-Keewatinook Aski) said her riding needs help now. 

“We’re dealing with a crisis situation and so the subsidy should be applied immediately,” she said.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett told the Free Press the government intends to act fast, but suggested plans are still in the early phases.

“We are looking across all government departments, from resupply ships to airlifts to whatever we can do, to make sure that people in Churchill have whatever they need,” Bennett said, noting the community’s looming tourism season.

“This is really something that we’re very focused on. We’ve got to fix this.”

Transport Canada officials say they’re working with the town and province “to ensure community needs are met,” but didn’t give details on possible marine shipments.

“As the owner and operator of the Churchill Airport, Transport Canada is confident the airport has the capacity to accommodate increased cargo operations if necessary,” department spokeswoman Natasha Gauthier wrote in an email.

Bureaucrats say communities must meet four criteria to qualify for the Nutrition North subsidy, which Churchill seems to match: lacking year-round surface transportation (with frozen water for more than a month); provincial designation as a northern community; possessing an airport, post office or grocery store; and a year-round population according to the national census.

Meanwhile, Ashton said it was “deeply problematic” on-the-ground photos recently obtained by the Free Press show critical areas of the rail line were no longer underwater, while the rail line owner continued distributing photos that show the tracks as submerged.

“It’s clear the people are saying what we’re hearing from the company is different from the reality,” Ashton said. “Many have said this is a money grab by Omnitrax.”

MP Gerry Ritz (Battlefords-Lloydminster) oversaw the rail line for the former Conservative government as agriculture minister. He said it had issues for years that were left unaddressed, to the point grain companies didn’t want to use the Churchill port and started building capacity elsewhere.

“It got to the point where they were running 10 kilometres an hour and they just couldn’t get the product there,” Ritz said. “It’s deteriorated amazingly over the past two decades.”

While there’s talk of selling the rail line, Ritz said, “you’re basically buying a pig in a poke, unless you’ve got a pretty good, solid idea of what it’s going to take to make it operational again.”

Filings with the lobby commissioner show the company stopped asking for federal help in November 2014. But the company rejects the idea it has let the line slide into disrepair.

“Between 1998 and 2015, Omnitrax’s investment in the line totalled over $75 million. This is in addition to the combined $40 million that was invested by the federal and provincial governments in the railway and the port,” the company wrote in a statement, released through a Toronto public-relations firm.

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Supply-chain expert Barry Prentice said the government should look at solutions for Churchill such as cargo airships and new roads.

“The rail line has always been a problem, because it was routed wrong in the first place,” said Prentice, a professor with the University of Manitoba’s Asper School of Business.

He said the line to Churchill from Gillam sits on “discontinuous permafrost,” which is increasingly shifting with climate change.

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca