The History of the Port of Churchill
The Port infrastructure at Churchill and the Hudson Bay Rail Line were constructed in the 1930's to facilitate:
- the export of grain and other commodities from Western Canada as well as the import of industrial goods, particularly from the Northern Hemisphere
- northern industrial and community development
- Canada's strategic requirements for defense and sovereignty, and
- the resupply of goods to Canada's Arctic communities
The Port of Churchill has a long history of two way trade in the movement of people and goods. Throughout the 1950’s and 1960’s the port was used to import automobiles, liquor, pipe, tractors, transmission towers, machinery, sodium nitrate and other commodities and to export not only wheat but also cobalt oxide and nickel slabs. During the 1930’s Churchill exported quantities of honey, lumber and livestock through the port.
Currently, grain exports from the port accounts for approximately 90% of the traffic with the balance being the import of fertilizer from Russia and the resupply of communities in the Kivalliq region of Nunavut.
In 1997, OmniTRAX, Inc. (owned by The Broe Group, headquartered in Denver, Colorado) purchased the Port of Churchill from the Government of Canada. OmniTRAX also was successful in purchasing the rail line from The Pas to Churchill, Manitoba presently operating as the Hudson Bay Railway.
The Port of Churchill is Canada's only major northern seaport. It offers access to ocean freight via the Hudson Bay Rail Line to southern Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and the Great Plains area of the continent. The Port of Churchill also offers a trade route for exports from these geographic regions to Northern Europe, Scandinavia, the Baltic ports and the seaports in northern Russia.