Churchill - Canada's Gateway To The World

 

The secret to getting ocean access to export oil and gas is not on the west or east coast but rather right up the north through the Port of Churchill on Hudson Bay. Originally opened in the 1920's there is already a fully built out port along with a refurbished railway connecting back to Winnipeg that is sitting there under utilized and waiting for the stars to align. Fortunately that moment has finally arrived.

With the European tap to Russian natural gas now turned off thanks to the Ukrainian war, there exists a huge opportnity for Canadian natural gas to take its place and provide a little competition to the Americans who are currently the only supplier. Natural gas is now flowing to Asian countries via the new facilities in Kitimat on the west coast with more to follow, but the European market is effectively closed off without the proposed pipeline extention through Quebec to the Maritimes that was nixed back in 2017. 

But folks in the Prairie provinces are certainly not opposed to pipelines and an alternate route could be tapped into the existing Trans Canada Mainline pipeline at Portage La Prairie/Winnipeg and follow the Hudson Bay railway up to Churchill. Alberta oil could probably also be shipped on this route and loaded onto bulk tankers for delivery to the Irving Oil refinery in St. John, the country's largest. Both the port and the railway are owned by the Arctic Gateway Group, an Indigenous and community owned company which also ensures benefits flow to the people and communities of the North. 

Hudson's Bay Railway

Of course there is even more we could do with the Port of Churchill. Churchill offers the closest route for European goods to enter the North American market and connect to the intercontinental railway. With its four deep-sea berths capable of handling Panamax-size ships for bulk shipping, general cargo, and oil tankers, not to mention its grain elevators, with 140,000 tons of storage capacity, or 2,500,000 bushels of grain, that are three times the size of Vancouver's, this port should be bustling year round, and it would also make an ideal location for an LNG plant and container terminal. 

It's been 100 years since the Port of Churchill first opened and the vision of the folks back then is even more valid today. With all the geopolitical changes that have been happening, the timing has never been better for realizing the full potential of this arctic port. Yes there is the problem of sea ice, which currently limits shipping through Hudson Bay to a maximum of 5 months per year, but one of our new icebreakers would be able to clear an open path for any ship that wanted to transit in from or out to the Atlantic Ocean. The time has come for the polar bear and beluga whale capital of Canada to finally cash in on its unique location and become Canada's gateway to the world.