Time to bring readers up to date on what is happening with the second port on Hudson Bay out of Manitoba.
While the proponents of the northern Canadian seaport of Churchill project have been busy in the media assuring everyone that their idea will work if only someone will cough up a billion dollars or so to make it happen, the NeeStaNan folks have been massaging plans and looking for practical ways to get this on the table. There is excitement in Saskatchewan with whom the group have been working to assure that it benefits as much from the project as will Alberta and Manitoba.
Besides grain, Saskatchewan ships potash to markets that are much easier and cheaper to reach through The Hudson Bay than by gong east west or south, but it also has one other commodity – oil and gas running in pipelines though the province in transit to Manitoba and the United States. Natural could be refined into LNG at Yorkton, providing that towns with jobs and investment, and then shipped via rail in thermos cars to Port Nelson where it would to be delivered across a floating wharf offshore, to a permanently anchored, container ship which would host downloading transport liners in deep water further out in the Bay.
The advantages of this are many. Number one is the speed with which this could be built. The spur line off the arctic Gateway line would be built just past Amery where it would head over a hard rail bed the short 120 miles to estuary of the Nelson River. Once consultations and engineering studies were done, the line could be built in a year. None of this is to say that a pipeline could not be added in the future, but this early phase would provide an early return on investment while the project grew and developed.
Energy products are not the only commodities that could use Hudson Bay to get to European, south American and even Asian markets. Agriculture, minerals, manufactured goods – even product from the landlocked norther United States would benefit from this egress to the sea. Manitoba could become immensely wealthy, provide an outlet for the goods produced by its amazingly talented population.
But what about Churchill, you say. Isn’t it all about the underused port that has been there over a hundred years and has never lived up to its original promise? It took me a long time to admit it because I have loved and promoted Churchill since the first time I went there back in 1976 to take part in the opening ceremonies of the new Town Centre along with then Premier Ed Schreyer, but that promise will never be fulfilled. That is not to say that Churchill cannot have a viable and operational port, but it will never be the industrial giant that today’s world demands.
The reasons? Space, unless they wanted to build out of the river and into the bay which seems to be off the table. Nature, which includes the Churchill estuary teeming with tens of thousands of beluga whales each summer as the babies are birth there in fresh water. The fresh water itself freezes solidly from December and stays that way until April before it begins to break up, which takes place from May to August. Shipping doesn’t start until late July at the earliest.
Well, you say, isn’t that all true of Port Nelson? No, The currents rush the fresh water away so it never freezes solidly but is slushy throughout the winter – the further out you go, the saltier and slushier the ice. And space is no issue.
The other major issue for Churchill is getting there. The terrain beyond Amery (just north of Gillam) is discontinuous permafrost over a swamp. If you know your history, the hardest part in building the CPR was though the Canadian Shield over the peat bogs that swallowed entire sections of track, cars and rail beds overnight. The line to Churchill is even more complicated because of the permafrost which tuns everything under the surface to mush when it thaws. They have tried a myriad of ways to fix this but none of the techniques used so far has created a permanent solution.
The Port Nelson line on the other hand runs over the esker ridge, a glacier created formation like what you see in western Manitoba around Riding Mountain.
Now those of you who have read about this before will find nothing new in what I have said and the provincial government continues to promulgate the myth that the Churchill road is fine, the port is viable and that they are just looking for investors.
To find out more about Neestanan, check out their website at https://neestanan.ca/
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