Roughly 30,000 tonnes of Canadian durum wheat departed the Port of Churchill bound for Europe this week, marking the port’s first grain shipment since 2020.
The port, the only one of its kind in Canada linking rail access to deep-water Arctic shipping, sat idle for years under its previous owner, Denver-based OmniTRAX, which let the connecting rail line fall into disrepair before shutting it down in 2016. Arctic Gateway Group, a consortium of northern and First Nations communities, purchased the operation afterward, bringing back shipments in 2019 before COVID-19 forced another pause in 2021.
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This week’s wheat shipment, supplied by Saskatchewan-based AGT Foods, opens a three-shipment season that’s expected to move more than 100,000 tonnes of grain to European buyers in total. Arctic Gateway says the season is shaping up to be its most diversified yet, with a separate vessel due this week to load zinc concentrate and the port’s first-ever shipment of potash, mined in Manitoba by the Potash and Agri Development Corporation of Manitoba.
Northern Affairs Minister Rebecca Chartrand, who represents the riding that includes Churchill, described the shipment as marking its return as “a vital northern gateway connecting the Prairies, the Arctic,” and said the investment reflects Canada’s broader effort to find new markets as its ties to the United States change.
Arctic Gateway CEO Chris Avery said OmniTRAX neglected the port for decades, “ironically by American interest.” The company has also commissioned studies suggesting Churchill could eventually operate year-round without relying on the most expensive icebreakers, as Arctic sea ice continues to shrink.
