Talks to explore a sustainable year-round shipping season at Canada’s northernmost, deepwater port are set to get underway, following an agreement between the port’s ownership group and a Montreal-based dry bulk shipping company.
The Port of Churchill in northern Manitoba, which has a brief operational window each summer, is owned and operated by Arctic Gateway Group, a partnership of dozens of First Nations and Hudson Bay communities.
It signed a memorandum of understanding with Fednav, an international dry bulk shipping company, to evaluate a sustainable and commercially supported year-round shipping season for the port, Arctic Gateway said in a Friday news release.
Fednav operates a fleet of about 120 vessels that deliver more than 30 million tonnes of cargo each year, and it has decades of expertise in navigating Arctic waters and the Great Lakes, according to the release.
“They’re a perfect private sector solution to getting greater access to the Port of Churchill,” said Chris Avery, Arctic Gateway’s CEO.
The partnership is “a natural evolution” for Churchill and Canada as a whole, as the port moves toward being able to ship western Canadian energy, agriculture and critical minerals to international markets, he said.
“As we move forward, we know that our customers are going to look for shippers who specialize, who know how to operate in the North,” he said.
Although the port operates on a four-month schedule, Avery said research from the University of Manitoba shows shipping lanes through the Hudson’s Bay could currently be opened for six months a year without ice breakers.
Research has shown that climate change is slowly stripping away the bay’s yearly freeze up, opening up shipping lanes year-round within the next generation or two, said Avery.
Year-round shipping access through the port is a high priority for the ownership group, and they’re attempting to move toward that, while also meeting its mandate to ensure northern and Indigenous communities are full participants and beneficiaries.
“We believe that the Port of Churchill having year-round shipping access … is really a game changer,” Avery said.
‘Beginning of a working relationship’
Canada-U.S. trade tensions sparked renewed interest in the Port of Churchill earlier this year, with Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew saying it could be a good option to boost trade with Europe, and expansion could fit with the federal government’s plan for nation-building infrastructure.
In recent years, the federal and provincial governments have invested millions of dollars in the railway line and port in order to secure a trade route through Hudson Bay and the Arctic to overseas markets.
Stéfany Corey, Fednav’s senior communications manager, said it’s one of the only companies in the world that ships through the Arctic throughout the year, and it has three ships and three ice breakers doing that work.
“We want to make sure that we’re leveraging our different areas of expertise, and feel that we can both work together on exploring whether or not this is something that we can viably operate year-round,” she told CBC News on Friday.
“We don’t just have ice breakers, we also have a whole team who understands the trials and opportunities in the Arctic.”
The two will begin talks in October, she said.
“It’s the beginning of a working relationship that we’re looking forward to exploring.”
