For people living in Manitoba’s cut off town of Churchill, the scene at the town’s port Sunday was a frustrating reminder its rail line isn’t running.
MV Nunalik, a container ship, is now docked at the Port of Churchill. The province paid $6 million to cover the cost of shipping in 2.2 million litres of propane—enough to heat Churchill’s homes until next summer.
Meanwhile, a five Via rail passenger cars and two locomotives left stranded following damage to Churchill’s rail line in May, will soon be shipped out for repairs.
“It’s frustrating,” said Joe Stover, a longtime Churchill resident. “We’ve been hearing words and words are great but we really need to see some action because we haven’t seen any yet.”
Flooding caused an estimated $43 million dollars in damages to Churchill’s rail line in May.
Despite the movement at Churchill’s port this weekend, efforts to fix the line appear stalled.
On Friday, the federal government issued Omnitrax, the rail line’s owner, an ultimatum—fix the line in 30 days or face a lawsuit.
Omnitrax responded saying in part, “it’s become clear to us the federal government has no intension of constructively solving this problem for Churchill…While we remain of the view that the best outcome for all concerned is a negotiated sale to the First Nations coalition, based on Transport Canada's actions today, we are now contemplating steps to bring this protracted matter to a close.”
Churchill’s mayor Mike Spence is grateful the federal government is “holding Omnitrax accountable.”
“You know it’s clear that Omnitrax has not met its obligation and Canada is taking this seriously,” Spence said Sunday.
“The longer this drags out the more people that are going to move away. The more money that’s going to be lost,” said Stover, “And we’re really scared we’re going to get to a point of no return.”
Federal minister of Natural Resources Jim Carr is expected to visit Churchill this week.
