After decades of “rape and pillage” of the vital link to northern Manitoba, the longtime mayor of Churchill is hailing a $147.6-million investment to turn the belaboured Hudson Bay Railway into a modern trade corridor to Canada’s lone Arctic port.
“Investment is critical so you can open your gateway,” Mayor Mike Spence said Wednesday at The Forks in Winnipeg, where Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson and federal Northern Affairs Minister Dan Vandal officially announced the joint investment. (Manitoba itself committed $73.8 million to the railway owned and operated by Arctic Gateway Group LP, a partnership of 41 First Nations and rail line communities.)
“You have a gateway here that’s underutilized, that’s been neglected,” Spence said, when asked if the investments are enough to prevent washouts such as in 2017 that shut the rail line down a year, prior to the consortium taking over operations.