Transport businesses call for “Arctic gateway”

The Port of Churchill is seen in an Oct. 2009 aerial photo. A new discussion paper envisions Churchill and Iqaluit as part of an “Arctic gateway” that could coordinate the economic development in the North. (FILE PHOTO)

Packaging northern development into an “Arctic gateway” could help governments balance economic development, traditional values, infrastructure needs and a looming boom in Arctic shipping, says a study presented at an Arctic conference in Winnipeg Nov. 10.

“The potential for resource development and viable shipping routes, unanticipated until very recently, also brings the prospect of significant impacts on communities and ways of life across the North,” the report states.

“The challenge of balancing commercial and traditional values, particularly related to the transportation system and infrastructure of the North, has become daunting.”

The paper, Canada’s Arctic Gateway, proposes an Arctic gateway organization similar to ones that already exist in British Columbia, the Atlantic provinces and Ontario and Quebec.

Such an organization, the paper says, would allow governments and business to coordinate transportation infrastructure projects with security and environmental monitoring in the Arctic and give Inuit a seat at the table to help guide development.

“An Arctic gateway must contribute to the sustainable development of isolated northern areas of Canada that have had little in common with the country’s long-established east and west cost seaports and urban transportation hubs,” it states.

The report calls for the improvement of the rail line to Churchill, as well as the port there, and the construction of a port facility in Iqaluit.

At the same time, building an Arctic gateway from Manitoba through Nunavut and on to Russian ports, could establish a bridge between farms and factories in Mexico and the American Midwest and China, states the discussion paper.

That’s in line with a longstanding goal of Manitoba to position Winnipeg as a continental freight hub.

It’s taken the first step with the establishment of CentrePort Canada, a massive “inland port” next to Winnipeg’s airport.

CentrePort’s CEO told the Winnipeg Free Press that Canada should upgrade the Churchill rail and port to take advantage of billions of dollars worth of improvements the Chinese have made to the Trans-Siberian Railway and Russia has made to the port at Murmansk.

“Churchill requires the same upgrade,” Diane Grey said. “We owe it to ourselves.”

The Arctic gateway approach would connect Winnipeg’s road, rail and air hubs with the Port of Churchill via railway, offering a faster route to China from the U.S. midwest than current routes from the east coast.

Indeed the Arctic Gateway Summmit, held in Winnipeg from Nov. 8 — 10, was sponsored in part by OmniTrax, the company which owns the Northern Manitoba railway and the Port of Churchill.

It’s been eager to drive up business through the port, which was privatized in the 1990s and nearly being left for dead by the federal government.

While at the Arctic Gateway Summit, Nunavut Premier Eva Aariak and Manitoba Premier Greg Selinger signed a memorandum of understanding that pledges the two governments will work together on health, economic development and tourism.

The MOU also calls for action on a $1.2-billion highway link between Gillam and Rankin Inlet.