Port of Churchill up for Sale
The Port of Churchill, MB. Photo: Steve Selden
The Port of Churchill and the Hudson Bay Railway are being put up for sale by Denver based Omnitrax owned by the Broe Group. Both the Hudson Bay line from the Pas to Churchill and the port are being sold together as a package deal.
Prior to 1997 the Government of Canada owned the Port but then divested many of their crown holdings and sold the facility to US based Omnitrax. Because the Canadian National Railway had also been privatized, the line between Churchill and the Pas was also sold to the company.
While the sale announcement has been kept low key the news is now out and potential suitors have yet to come forward.
After anticipating a surge in shipping from the port, years of average growth and a decline this year in the grain shipping out of Churchill have lead management to search for new product avenues. Recent attempts to initiate oil shipments from the sub – Arctic port were quashed by public outcry amid fears of potential environmental destruction in the case of a spill. Protesters fear an oil spill in the Hudson Bay would cause irreversible damage to the fragile northern ecosystem that, among other wildlife, is home to the mighty polar bear.
It will be very interesting to see who steps forward as a potential buyer and what plans are put forth for the port and the Hudson Bay Line. The challenge is huge.
“Obviously, after a tough year in the industry we’ve looked at a lot of things and concluded that either the railway and the port needs more support or perhaps another owner or operator could take it on and see what they could do,” say Merv Tweed, president of OmniTrax Canada. “It is obviously a big challenge, but we feel we’ve put the port and railroad in decent shape over the last couple of years. We’ve brought in a lot of efficiencies, but it is a challenge.”
