Senior Manitoba MP to 'gather intelligence' on Port of Churchill file

Manitoba's senior MP says the Trudeau government is still trying to figure out what to do with the shuttered Port of Churchill.

Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr said the federal government is just beginning to gather intelligence aboutthe effects ofOmniTrax'sdecision to shutterthe Port of Churchill in northern Manitoba, lay off its workers and cut freight-train service along the Hudson Bay Railway.

"The operators of the port andtheoperators of the railroad have determined they are no longer interested in those operations, so the government of Canadawill look at the impact ofthose decisions on the people of thenorthand the people along the line," Carr told reportersafter a news conference at the Winnipeg Art Gallery.

Carr said he plans to meet this week with Churchill Mayor Mike Spence and several northern Manitoba chiefs and thenforward what he learns to NavdeepBains, the federal minister of innovation, science and economic development.

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"As a minister for Manitoba, it's my job to understand what Manitobans are saying about this, what the port has meant historically, what the port and the railway can represent in the future of Manitoba and to gather that intelligence," he said.

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Carr, who is familiar with the Churchill file from his days running theBusiness Council of Manitoba, declined to offer his own opinions about the port and railway, which shipping-industry experts have described as inefficient and out of date.

Carr described what has transpired over the past week as "a new chapter" in the history of Churchill.

The port has been the biggest employer in Churchill, Man., a town of fewer than 1,000 people about 1,000 kilometres north of Winnipeg on the coast of Hudson Bay.