Premier Brian Pallister is accusing OmniTrax of shutting down the Port of Churchill to leverage taxpayer dollars.
"Unprincipled approaches that rely on bailouts rather than building are not what we will pursue,” he said.
Pallister revealed a secret agreement signed last July between the previous NDP government and OmniTrax. The Conservative government said OmniTrax received $827,000 in subsidies for capital and operating costs for the 2015 shipping season.
The premier suggested when his government refused to renew the deal, OmniTrax threatened with layoffs and has now followed through. He said a long term solution is required, not a short sighted decision based on a threat.
“Now that threat is being repeated this year and I want to be very very clear that I don't respond ever to threats,” Pallister said.
However, the provincial NDP, along with the federal government, said subsidies were provided with the loss of the Canadian Wheat Board
Caught in the middle are the people of Churchill, such as John Hrominchuk, who owns a hotel and restaurant in the town.
The closure has reduced rail freight deliveries north in half.
"Now we're getting food in once a week, we're short something we can't just go to Costco,” he said.
It is unclear what happened to a tentative deal in December that would have seen a First Nations group buy the Port – Hrominchuk said that's the type of long term solution required.
"Churchill has to find a partner that when it comes to subsidies, we're not subsidizing a large corporation we're subsidizing a community,” he said.
CTV has made repeated attempts seeking comment from OmniTrax.
