Committee drains Rankin tank farm

TODD PHILLIPS

A GNWT committee has drowned Rankin Inlet’s hopes of becoming a fuel supply hub for the Keewatin region.

The Keewatin Resupply Committee, at a Yellowknife meeting last week, rejected an option that would have made Rankin Inlet the region’s gateway for fuel and dry goods.

To do that, Rankin Inlet would have needed a tank farm estimated to cost about $8.7 million, and make other expensive infrastructure improvements.

The committee is made up of seven Keewatin mayors, the president of the Kivalliq Inuit Association, a Keewatin Chamber of Commerce representative, and three MLAs ­ Kivallivik MLA Kevin O’Brien, Aivilik MLA Manitok Thompson and Keewatin Central MLA John Todd.

After a day of debate last Wednesday, committee members voted unanimously to keep the current supply system in place until 1999.

Committee members also agreed to begin the work needed to ensure each Keewatin community will be ready for direct resupply in the future.

Churchill system maintained

Now, fuel and dry goods for the Keewatin are shipped by rail to Churchill, Manitoba where they are stored and then shipped out by barge to each Keewatin community.

The territorial government began exploring other resupply options when the future of the Churchill rail line was in doubt.

But in November, a U.S. based company called OmniTrax offered to buy the rail line from Ottawa and is now negotiating to buy the port of Churchill.

OmniTrax’s vice-president of business development was at the Yellowknife meeting, as were people representing a number of shipping companies, and some high-profile Manitoba politicians.

NWT-Manitoba co-operation agreement

Manitoba’s deputy premier, James Downey, and Len Derkach, the minister of rural development, represented the Manitoba government.

“The supply of northern communities is an important part of the Manitoba economy,” Downey said in a news release issued by the Manitoba government about the meeting last week.

Last June, NWT Premier Don Morin and Manitoba Premier Gary Filmon also signed a memorandum of understanding that commits the two governments to cooperate in areas such as transportation, mining, resources development and trade and commerce.

Surveys and infrastructure

Although Churchill’s future may now look brighter, committee members decided that the Keewatin still needs to plan for its own future.

The committee recommended that the territorial and federal governments pay for hydrographic mapping in the waters near Keewatin communities to allow larger vessels to navigate entrances to their harbours.

Committee members also want the territorial government to make the improvements in infrastructure and pipelines needed for direct delivery of fuel to each Keewatin community.

Committee head pleased

Kivallivik MLA Kevin O’Brien, the chair of the Keewatin resupply committee, says the decision not to go with the Rankin Inlet option will save the GNWT about $3 million a year.

“It wasn’t workable, it wasn’t feasible, and it didn’t provide the fairness to all the communities,” O’Brien said this week from Arviat.

The committee has been researching the issue and gathering facts for about 12 months.

“There was a point where the information spoke for itself,” he said.

O’Brien and Todd agree

O’Brien has been battling with Keewatin Central MLA John Todd and other tank farm backers for months about the best way to resupply the region.

But O’Brien says he talked with Todd this week and both have agreed to put the resupply issue behind them and work together to prepare for the future of Nunavut.

“I’m pleased with the results. It’s time to move on,” O’Brien said. “It’s taken a lot of energy, but it’s an issue that had to be dealt with.”

The committee’s recommendations will now go to Jim Antoine, the GNWT’s transportation minister.

A political battle

“It became a political thing between Mr. Todd and Mr. O’Brien, unfortunately,” said Rankin Inlet’s newly-elected mayor, John Hickes.

Hickes says his council has to steer clear of those types of political battles and “take the high road.”

Hickes says the hamlet council has to plan for the community’s growth, which includes expanding the fuel storage capacity and building a marshalling area and storage area for dry goods.

The mayor says Rankin Inlet has to be ready to handle the new infrastructure that will be needed to house Nunavut’s government, and to meet the needs of the mining industry.

“We need it regardless of whether we become a hub or resupply point,” Hickes said.

Hickes called the decision to continue with the status quo, a “non-decision” and called the committee’s work, including a consultant’s report on the issue, “a bit of a waste of time.”

Questioned numbers

At the Yellowknife meeting, Hickes questioned some of the figures used in a consultant’s report that compared various options for supplying the region.

Hickes says, for example, that it wasn’t made clear enough that the tank farm would have been built by the private sector and leased back to the government.

Manitoba must help

Hickes says the Manitoba politicians at last week’s Yellowknife meeting are aware that if people in the Keewatin no longer ship their goods through Churchill, then they will also no longer buy their goods from Manitoba.

“If you have a transportation mode that has changed from Churchill to Montreal, or St. John’s, Newfoundland, all the commodities will be coming out of those provinces and not Manitoba anymore,” Hickes said.

Hickes estimates that the Keewatin communities now purchase between $200-300 million a year in goods and services.

“That’s why you had the deputy premier there,” Hickes said.

“The ball is in their court. The province of Manitoba along with the community of Churchill have to show to us that we are a valued customer.”

He said, for example, that perhaps Manitobans can pay the estimated $4 million needed to refurbish Churchill’s aging tank farms.

If the people of the NWT are asked to pay part of the cost to fix up the Churchill tank farm, Hickes says, “I think there will be a fight.”

Hickes says he understands the concerns of Churchill residents because he used to live there, was a member Churchill’s town council, and grew up with current mayor Michael Spence.

Spence is out of town this week and was unavailable for comment.

But the town’s assistant chief executive officer says the mayor, and other Churchill residents, are pleased with the outcome of the Yellowknife meeting.

“It means a lot to us that they’ve shown confidence in Churchill,” Cory Young said this week from Churchill. “We are going to work very hard to maintain a good relationship with the Keewatin district.”