Manitoba Heavy Construction Association

4 WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 9, 2016 A SUPPLEMENT TO THE WINNIPEG FREE PRESS PROSPERITY. T hat is what Churchill has been and is, now, although I think most of us refuse to recognize and seize on the fact. Churchill embodies Canada's national myth. We are the North. We are strength in adversity. We embrace and defy the elements that would kill less hardy stock. Such romanticism is more than symbol- ism, it is the essence of nation-building. Yet Manitobans and Canadians seem doggedly determined to ignore the wealth and potential that lie in the North. Churchill has Canada's only northern deep-water port. Today, the future of the Port of Churchill is jeopardized. This summer, owner-operator Omnitrax shuttered the Port and curtailed shipments on the rail line that supplies 30 northern communities. But it is unfair and myopic to blame Omnitrax, or dismiss this as a negotiating ploy for public subsidy. Omnitrax has spent substantial capital and has tried to diversify the market. But the truth is a viable business plan for the Port requires public investment and public policy to backstop it. A port operation needs services only an engaged federal government can provide: regular, dependable navigation and coast-guard support to ensure safe passage of vessels, for example. Canada doesn't do that. Why? Further, securing a rail bed destabilized by the melting permafrost will require the efforts of our research and development sector. In a warming climate, there is evident spin-off potential for such technological innovation. Canada could be an international leader in this. The lack of interest in Churchill ignores the North's potential. This is not an indulgent exercise in national mythology; it is existential, pinned down by the cold, hard realities. Public investment in Churchill can stand firmly on steely eyed economics. Climate change means the Northwest Passage can be a cheaper east-west shipping route. It opens access to Arctic resources. This is why the Russians are investing hundreds of millions of rubles in infrastructure for navigation, safety, coast guard and port facilities. The Scandinavians are similarly gearing up. We naturally think of the expanded tourism – a boon to Inuit artists and businesses. But Canada has territorial interests to defend. It cannot assert sovereign claim to the polar continental shelf by sending the occasional icebreaker to fly the flag in the fabled Northwest Passage. It needs to plant a definable, permanent stake in the North. We need to invest in the Port of Churchill. Canada needs a northern "gateway" strategy. Federally, we have gateway legislation to guide development strategy pertaining to the Atlantic and Pacific oceans – we need this for the Arctic Ocean, too. Let's work to gain gateway designation for Churchill, centred on aboriginal ownership. A consortium of 15 First Nations, with a track record of running a short-line rail, has a business plan for the Port that is not predicated on grain shipment. It aims to position Churchill to be central to the supply and transportation needs of Nunavut. That's vision and our governments should be listening. Churchill can and should be the hub for a new relationship with Indigenous people, in social, scientific and commercial innovation and enterprise, as well as international trade. The Trudeau government has said the next $60 billion in funding for Canada's infrastructure must be 'nation-building' – developing Northern Canada's international trade routes is entirely that. In the same way that the natural wealth of the North – its people, especially -- made the Hudson's Bay Company rich, fed settlement in the Red River Valley and gave birth to Winnipeg, Canada and Manitoba should see that today's Churchill, its port and rail line are critical to how we will prosper. This is by no means myth; it is very much our reality, now, and our future. It completes Canada. Lloyd Axworthy is a former federal Liberal cabinet minister and the former chair of the Churchill Gateway Development Corp. He is the chancellor of St. Paul's University College at the University of Waterloo. ■ BY LLOYD AXWORTHY THE GOVERNOR AND COMPANY OF ADVENTURERS OF ENGLAND SAW THE POTENTIAL. THE SELKIRK SETTLERS, TOO, EXPERIENCED FIRST-HAND WHAT MADE OUR PROVINCE UNIQUE. WHAT THEY 'DISCOVERED' UPON COMING TO THE SHORES OF HUDSON BAY, WAS OLD NEWS TO THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLE ACROSS THAT VAST TERRITORY. SALT WATER, RIVERS, ANIMALS BY LAND, OCEAN AND SKY. FURS, MEAT, TRAVEL. TRADE. CULTURE. COMMERCE. > The lack of interest in Churchill ignores the North's potential. This is not an indulgent exercise in national mythology; it is existential, pinned down by the cold, hard realities. CHURCHILL GATEWAY - LET'S TREAT IT THAT WAY IS A

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