ARCTIC GATEWAY GROUP
"We’re about to begin pre-development and development work for the Port of Churchill." – Michael Woelcke, Arctic Gateway Group chief executive officer
Mike Spence, Churchill mayor and board chair for Arctic Gateway Group, with Michael Woelcke, chief executive officer for Arctic Gateway Group
more than two decades. The passengers did some local tours, such as watching beluga whales, to finish up their trip. They were replaced by almost 140 visitors, who arrived by a charter flight to take in the town and then boarded the ship for their journey. AGG isn’t directly involved in tourism, but it supports the industry and helped with marine regulations so the cruise ship could dock at Canada’s only deep- water Arctic port. “They’ve confirmed that they’re coming back in 2024 and 2025,” Woelcke says of Monaco-based Silversea Cruises, which is owned by the Royal Caribbean Group. “They got positive response to this cruise. We’re very pleased about that, so that bodes well for the port and for Churchill.” While more visits from cruise ships could be in the future, it is limited by the season, he notes. However, year- round tourism in the area is expanding. “Churchill used to be polar bears October, November, then beluga whales July and August,” Woelcke says. “The aurora borealis (northern lights) is becoming a big thing. The middle of winter is the best time to see it, so January to March is now a growing season. So Churchill is expanding its tourism offerings.” AGG’s shipping season also began on a positive note. “We get three re-supply ships per year that come out of Quebec and head into Hudson Bay and then go up to Nunavut,” Woelcke says. “The first re-supply ship shipped the
same amount of revenue tonnes (6,000) as all of last year.” Part of AGG’s development plan is to increase the shipping of goods, whether that’s outbound or inbound. An example of those goods could be critical minerals, potash, grain and containers, he says. Critical minerals might include zinc, copper and lithium. “There’s a significant demand in the world right now for all of those goods,” Woelcke says, adding the demand is also growing. “There are mining companies operating, or beginning to operate, in Manitoba and we believe that we’ll offer a very good opportunity and a very direct pathway to markets for them.” The plan will look at the viability of those companies and do risk assessments. An engineering firm is currently evaluating the port’s infrastructure as it needs basic upgrades regardless of future plans. “We don’t have the facilities to handle critical minerals today,” Woelcke says. “Depending on the type of minerals, they have certain requirements from a moisture perspective. You have to keep them dry, so we would need to build warehousing, and there needs to be conveying (systems) from a rail car to the warehouse to a ship.” The bulk of re-supply ships head up the west coast of Hudson Bay to communities in Nunavut, which also gets cargo shipped from eastern Canada. AGG is working to increase shipments
to the northern area. Goods such as pickup trucks, large fuel tanks, pre- fabricated housing components and sometimes crates of non-perishable goods already make the journey. A summit was held in Churchill in August with members of the Kivalliq Inuit Association and its development arm, as well as other organizations and representatives from the Town of Churchill. “The communities in Nunavut are happy to, and like to, ship from Manitoba,” Woelcke says. “They value the relationship. They connect with Manitoba and so they see it as an opportunity.” AGG is also in the second year of a capital program for upgrades and major repairs to the Hudson Bay Railway, which Woelcke says is expected to be completed in the summer of 2024. The federal and provincial governments announced last year a combined $147 million to support the improvements. The money is in addition to $157 million the federal government has given since the ownership of the port and railway changed hands to AGG in 2018. Woelcke is optimistic its development plan will lead to wide-ranging success. “It will assist us to eventually become self-sufficient, which is what we want to do, and to be an economic driver for business, to support communities and to provide jobs and income for communities and owners and members,” he says. “That’s where we’re going.” ■
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