OmniTrax is firing back at the Canadian government as Churchill waits in limbo about the future of its rail line.
The company has released an engineering report outlining a 30-day plan to temporarily fix the washed out rail line, which has been unusable because of heavy flooding this past spring.
It would cost upwards of $10 million and would allow light loads to travel on the line through the winter.
Long-term repair work would have to wait until the spring, with an estimated cost of $43.5 million.
Days after the report was published, the federal government issued an ultimatum to OmniTrax: implement and complete this 30-day fix, or prepare to be sued.
OmniTrax has now issued another shot across the bow to Ottawa, releasing a statement attributed to president and former Brandon-Souris MP Merv Tweed.
“It has become clear to us that the federal government has no intention of constructively solving this problem for Churchill,” Tweed said. “It appears from their collective indecisiveness, dysfunction and lack of leadership on this critical issue that both Canada and the Province of Manitoba are content to leave Churchill as a remote, fly-in community for the first time in over 100 years.”
In the statement, Tweed also grumbled about how the company has received no return on its investment in the rail line since purchasing it 20 years ago.
“It is our view that, as a result of the federal government’s actions (or inactions) recently and over the past ten years, the Hudson Bay Railway is not commercially viable and should be regarded as a public utility,” Tweed explained. “We recognize this position has frustrated many, but it has become the inconvenient truth for Churchill.”
OmniTrax wants to sell the line to First Nations buyers, an agreement which Tweed said hinges on the federal government’s support.