Looking North, taking chances to secure economic future – Winnipeg Free Press

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Considering the amount of attention it gets, you might think things were booming at the Port of Churchill

A group of Nordic trade officials were onsite just a couple of weeks ago. Multinational mining companies are establishing future agreements, promising to ship ore from Churchill.

This week, fledgling venture Minnova Corp. signed an memorandum of understanding with Arctic Gateway Group, owner of Hudson Bay Railway and the Port of Churchill, “to jointly explore and, if appropriate, pursue joint initiatives to enhance our respective operations and promote efficiency in the transportation, distribution and export of green hydrogen and/or hydrogen carriers and other biofuels.”

Dylan Robertson / Free Press files
Ottawa and Manitoba committed last month a further $60 million to the Port of Churchill and its connecting railway, bringing the total since 2018 to more than $300 million. — Dylan Robertson / Free Press files

Ottawa and Manitoba committed last month a further $60 million to the Port of Churchill and its connecting railway, bringing the total since 2018 to more than $300 million.

It’s not guaranteed revenue, but is another indication of efforts being made to at least imagine the northern shipping route’s future role.

It’s been seven years since the rail line connecting Churchill to southern Manitoba was washed out, taking its former U.S.-based owner with it.

Everyone is pleased with the new ownership group, which represents the First Nations and northern communities for whom the rail line is an important utility.

Last month, the provincial and federal governments came up with another $60 million to maintain the rail lines and start some redevelopment work on port infrastructure. That brings the commitment from the two levels of government to more than $300 million since the ownership change in 2018.

Extensive work being done on the tracks is essential for maintenance of the service which some 29,000 residents in the North rely on. But if the rail line and port are ever going to be anything more than a regional transportation network, much more effort is be required.

This is not Field of Dreams; the rail line and port have been around for nearly 100 years. However, mere presence is clearly not enough to attract trade.

Minnova CEO Gorden Glenn is very familiar with northern Manitoba. As a geologist, he’s been working on and off in the North for close to 40 years.

Most recently, he had been working to redevelop the PL mine (formerly called Puffy Lake) in the Flin Flon/Snow Lake region.

That property has all the infrastructure in place from its former operation, proven gold reserves and a feasibility study in place.

While it was not going to be the biggest mine in the world, Glenn’s inability to line up the capital is another indication that, when it comes to northern Manitoba, it’s going to take more than just the mere presence of an asset to attract the necessary resources to accomplish the economic development.

What it is going to take is enterprising characters such as Glenn.

His pivot to green energy was partly due to prior discussions with the Mathias Colomb Cree Nation about a biomass idea.

The point is nothing is going to just going to happen on its own in the North. Chances have to be taken.

Mike Woelcke, CEO of Arctic Gateway Group, isn’t banking on the Minnova MOU to help with next month’s payroll.

He knows the green hydrogen industry is going to take some number of years to materialize. But he does have a shipment of zinc queued up from HudBay Minerals’ Lalor mine at Snow Lake for this spring/summer.

Woelcke was in Toronto for the massive PDAC mining conference this week and met with HudBay officials; everything is still on track for a shipment of 20,000 tonnes of ore. Woelcke’s hope is the route will become accommodating for HudBay on an on-going basis.

Even though the Port of Churchill opened in 1931, Arctic Gateway is effectively starting a new venture and, like any other, it needs beta customers to test out the business plan.

Woelcke said Arctic Gateway has MOUs signed with many other organizations, so there’s obviously people out there thinking about the trade potential of the northern railway and port.

From Minnova’s point of view, its interest in building a hydrogen production facility at Flin Flon (called the Flin Flon Clean Energy Hub) helps energize the community in its efforts to diversify its economy.