Churchill mayor, feds meet about rail line

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This article was published 17/08/2017 (2442 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — Churchill Mayor Mike Spence has met with senior Ottawa officials, suggesting Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is putting action behind his pledge to solve the town’s 12-week rail-line issue.

Meanwhile, the transport regulator has reached out to Omnitrax after receiving a dozen complaints about whether the company has followed federal law.

The Free Press has learned Spence visited the capital this Wednesday and Thursday, and met with assistant deputy ministers, who stickhandle their departments’ high-priority issues.

Though Spence did not speak with national media, he met with officials from the Prime Minister’s Office and the Privy Council (both of which advise Trudeau), the granting agency Western Economic Diversification and Transport Canada.

The mayor did not meet with deputy ministers, though a spokesman understood he’s been in touch with at least one.

This week’s meetings came as Manitobans filed a dozen complaints to the federal transit regulator about the abandoned rail line to Churchill, something the mayor has resisted.

In a Thursday evening statement, Spence said he has faith in Trudeau’s intervention — especially considering the maximum time a regulator probe can last.

“An 80-day investigation as to whether rail service was not being properly honoured to our community was never the best approach to get the line back up and running,” Spence wrote. “It is obvious to all involved that Omnitrax is not living up to their obligations.”

The government remains tight-lipped on how it plans to proceed. Options could include suing Omnitrax for the federal funding it’s received, bailing out the company, or taking over the line and transferring it to one of two First Nations groups that have asked to run it.

But Spence says he’s holding Trudeau to a promise made in a July 28 phone call to find a solution for the rail line.

“Our priority was securing a commitment from the highest levels of government that action would be taken to support our community, and the prime minister has done that,” Spence said.

Meanwhile, the federal regulator says it’s looking into two areas of concern.

The dozen complaints were all filed after an Aug. 10 Free Press article reported that the agency wouldn’t probe the situation until people complained.

In a Friday afternoon email, the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) said its designated enforcement officer (DEO) for Manitoba has reached out to Omnitrax “about its plans with respect to the matters raised in the emails.”

The CTA says it’s possible two parts of the federal Transportation Act may have been breached.

The first involves the movement of goods, but the regulator cryptically said no one’s complained about that. “The CTA can adjudicate complaints that a railway company has not respected these obligations. Most of the emails received do not constitute formal complaints of this sort, but any that do will be processed accordingly,” the agency wrote.

The CTA also noted that railways have to follow a strict process in order to discontinue service or transfer the rail line to another operator. “The CTA can take action if there is evidence this process has not been properly followed,” the regulator said, but added its DEO must first determine whether it seems that way, and then higher officials would decide how to proceed.

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca