While Manitoba announced Sunday it is allocating $51 million in new funding to help upgrade the Hudson Bay Railway line, Prime Minister Mark Carney said the Government of Canada will provide funding to the Arctic Research Foundation to undertake a feasibility study to determine the path forward for future deployment and operation of specialised icebreakers, ice tugs, and research vessels at the Port of Churchill.
Prime Minister Carney and Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew issued a joint statement after meeting in the premier’s office in Winnipeg.
The $51 million is allocated to the Arctic Gateway Group, a partnership of dozens of First Nations and Hudson Bay communities that owns the port to make capital improvements to the Hudson’s Bay rail line to handle heavier loads and to build a new critical minerals storage facility at the Port of Churchill. This brings the total provincial investment in the project to $87.5 million.
Last September, the Port of Churchill Plus was included under the Major Projects Office’s “transformative strategies list” while the prime minister announced five other projects would move forward. Six more major projects were announced last week, but the expansion of the Port of Churchill was deemed to require more review.
Sunday’s joint statement declared: “Rooted in partnership with Indigenous Peoples, Canada and Manitoba are working together to deliver the Port of Churchill Plus: one of the seven transformative strategies announced by the Prime Minister that is, without question, a core component to the prosperity of the country. We are working together to advance how expanded export capacity in the North through Hudson Bay will contribute to increased and diversified trade with Europe and other partners, while more strongly linking Churchill to the rest of Canada.
“Referral of a transformative strategy to the Major Projects Office means identifying a vision and establishing the building blocks to advance actual outcomes and results. This includes identifying who needs to be brought together to define the vision, identifying the competitive and economic elements of an opportunity, and prioritising this work to understand what can be accomplished in the short term to advance the strategy and achieve the intended long-term outcomes the strategy identifies.
“Today, Premier Wab Kinew and the Prime Minister have committed to continuing this work in an expedited fashion, with a view of sharing the strategy and plan for Churchill in the spring of 2026.”
(Photo of Port of Churchill from Arctic Gateway Group)