As Churchill begins its third month of no train service to connect it to the rest of Manitoba, the provincial government is contributing funding to make sure there is enough propane for winter heating needs but the town’s mayor says he takes that decision as a sign that Manitoba has given up on restoring train service this year.
The government announced July 21 that it was committing $6 million to send 110 shipment containers of propane, about 2.2 million litres in total, by sealift from a northern Quebec port in early autumn.
“Our government has continued to focus on the safety and security of those in Churchill and the surrounding region affected by the rail line outage,” said Premier Brian Pallister in a news release. “As the community faces uncertainty with regard to the future of the rail line and the Port of Churchill, today we are taking action to ensure that safety and security by facilitating the shipment of enough propane to support the town until next summer.”
But Churchill Mayor Michael Spence said in his own press release the same day that what his town really needs is a long-term solution.
“The loss of Northern Manitoba’s lifeline is about more than propane,” he said. “This is about the absence of leadership of federal and provincial elected representatives to this ongoing emergency.”
Spence says provincial and federal officials have not met face-to-face once since rail service north of Gillam stopped in late May and was later officially suspended until further notice by Hudson Bay Railway owner OmniTrax, which also owns the Port of Churchill and stopped shipping grain via the Hudson Bay last summer.
“It is imperative that governments immediately sit face-to-face and determine how repair work will be initiated,” said Spence. “We can’t understand why the premier is unable to get his ministers to meet with their federal counterparts immediately.”
OmniTrax said July 18 at a technical briefing in Winnipeg that it will take about two months to complete the work needed to restore rail service to Churchill, which could cost up to $60 million and which the company says it will need government money to undertake. OmniTrax also said that if it didn’t have a commitment from the federal and provincial governments by Aug. 1 that it would be too late to plan the work and get it done by the end of October.
“We understand that governments want the rail line owner to live up to their obligations,” said Spence. “They need to force that issue or step in themselves. They can’t dither while a community and Northern Manitobans’ livelihoods are at stake. The provincial plan to ship propane this winter means the province appears to have given up. Even OmniTrax has said that the rail could be fixed in 60 days. [Keewatin Rail Company] said they could do it sooner. Which rail companies has the province met with? Why are they prepared to spend millions of dollars without seriously examining repair options? This is not leadership and only means more losses for Northern Manitoba.”
