Living on the edge in Churchill

The sound rising up through the din in the pub at the Tundra Inn in Churchill, Man.,comes from an exotic creature,and it's not apolar bear growl or the whoosh of air from a beluga whaleas it surfaces.

It's the Australian accent of the young woman who hadheard of Churchill,the unique things to see thereand a localtourist trade to sustain a job for a few months.

In the evening, the bar is a couple of layers deep with young people working forhotels, restaurants and tour companies. The Aussie accent mingles with othersfrom other countries and provinces, and it is a testimony to how rare a place this is in this province.

Twenty-somethings from far away don'tflock to Winnipeg to work the tourist season.

Churchill has something special andit ismore than the three months ofwork that young travellers can get before heading to Banff or Whistler for the next seasonal gig.

Churchill isa potent and special mix of northern lights, a treeline thatmelts into the tundra and pods of beluga whales,sometimes in the hundreds.Italso hasthosebreathtaking massive polar bears as big as an Austin Mini loping along the shoreswith acasual air that comes from being on top of the food chain.

There is a wild, frontier feel to the town; on the edge of something,and notjustHudson Bay.

But the town needs more than a steady flow of bearwatchers.

Tourismwon't pay all the bills

Churchill hasbeen for many decades a working town:a base, a port, a rocket range, a northern hub.

It's those things and their slow erosion and,in some cases, their demise thatare more likely to be conversations at Churchill locations such as the Royal Canadian Legion or around some tables at Gypsy's Bakery and Restaurant.

Locals know thatthe tourist trade will not pay allthe bills to live on the edge ofHudson Bay. They mutter about losing their hub status for the regional airline and talk abouthow little upkeep has been done by Denver-basedOmniTraxon either the rail line into town or the port terminal.

It's hard not to see some evidence of that last opinion. Dozens of windows in the port terminal building are smashed, paint is peeling and sections of the dock way are eroding into the water. It appears thatOmniTrax, recipient of whale-sized subsidies inpast decades, wasn't spending taxpayer cash oncosmetics, anyway.

An executive inCanada's grain business told CBC News under the condition of anonymity that the port facilities were badly run down andin poor condition,and the rail line was in even worse shape. The business case for running grain through the north isn'tcurrently strong enough, according to the source.

Company's silence deafening

OmniTrax stillisn't saying much of anything other than it'sout, despite multiple requests for comment and even a visit byCBC News to the company's Winnipeg office,looking for someone to say anything about their recent moves.

• OmniTrax under fire in Churchill after company closes port
• Premier calls OmniTrax closure of Churchill port a 'leverage tactic'
• Senior Manitoba MP to 'gather intelligence' on Port of Churchill file

The American outfit'ssilence mightengender someappetite to look back and ask, "Just where did all that Canadian cash go?"

But that's not part of the rhetoric amongsome of the players in this tundra dance right now.Northern First Nations, once touted to be purchasers of the rail line and the port, are permafrostedin silence now.

The federal government has offered little more than platitudes,from emailedstatements by NavdeepBains, the federal minister of innovation, science and economic development,to Manitobacabinet minister Jim Carr recently promisingto "gather intelligence" on the Churchill file.

Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister came closest in the candour department,labellingOmniTraxas an issuer of threats and sayinghe wouldn't respond to that kind of tactic.

That doesn't mean the premier's team has proposed a solution, but it's further than the feds have gone since OmniTrax signaled its lack of interest in the future of the rail line or the port.

Last week, bad weather grounded a provincial crew of ministers and staff headed to Churchill for meetings with stakeholders. The get-together was hastily reconvened at the Manitoba Legislature. The Pallister government is promising a northern strategy to come, but there are no details.

In keeping with the sharp tone coming from Pallister's Progressive Conservative government, a press release following those meetings fired another shot at OmniTrax, asking the company to say something anything to the people impacted by its decision.

"It is our hope representatives ofOmniTraxwill follow our lead and will reach out to the communities that are being impacted by their recent decision," the provincial release said.