Churchill port owner eyes new business in Nunavut

The Port of Churchill is seen in an Oct. 2009 aerial photo. OmniTRAX, the company that owns both the Hudson Bay Railway and the Port of Churchill wants to ship more good to Nunavut and has its eyes on the GN’s fuel delivery contract. (PHOTO COURTESY OF OMNITRAX)

The company that owns the Port of Churchill has an eye cast north as it tries to expand its operation in Northern Manitoba.

Colorado-based OmniTRAX, which also owns the 1,300-kilometre Hudson Bay Railway that connects the port to the south, recently hired Pat Avery as its new vice president of energy and commodities.

In an interview from Denver, Avery said OmniTRAX wants to boost the amount of business it does in Nunavut, by shipping more sealift goods and supplies for the Kivalliq’s mining industry through Churchill.

“Those mines need computers, office equipment, snow machines, up to large size mining equipment,” Avery said.

Avery also said OmniTRAX wants to bid on the Government of Nunavut’s fuel delivery contract.

That contract is currently held by Labrador-based Woodward. It expires Nov. 30 of this year, although the GN has the option of two one-year extensions.

“We want to supply fuel to governments, hamlets and mining,” Avery said.

OmniTRAX bought the Hudson Bay Railway 1997 from Canadian National and the Churchill port the same year from the federal government.

The railway remains the only land link between Churchill and the south.

But the governments of Nunavut and Manitoba are working on a feasibility study for a highway connecting Gillam, the northern end of the Manitoba road system, to Rankin Inlet.

Avery said his company isn’t threatened by the long-term prospect of a road link to Churchill.

“To me, as long as the infrastructure and people are helped, we find opportunities in that,” he said. “We don’t block competition. We support [the highway]. We think it would be great for Nunavut and we think it would be great for growth.”

Avery said OmniTRAX said the company is looking at new cranes and equipment in Churchill for handling container cargo. That would come on the heels of $60 million in repairs to the Hudson Bay Railway tracks that OmniTRAX split with the governments of Canada and Manitoba.

That work, consisting of repairs to the rail bed, wrapped up in 2009, said Mike Ogborn, OmniTRAX’s managing director.

The improvements allow a 30-per-cent faster trip between Churchill and Gillam. A trip the railway’s southern terminus at The Pas takes about 20 hours, Ogborn said.