steveintoronto
Superstar
I think you'll be seeing a number of arguments and discussions on the point. If the rail line is closed, then a highway must be built. And it's not to serve the two thousand or so people in the immediate area.Churchill isn't anywhere that is critical for defense or for heavy goods delivery. There are so many other towns and cities in the far north that get by without rail access, it's hard to make the case for this one town to have it, especially if the money to fix the line could be better spent.
VIA has had a good run on this route, but there will be very little impact if the line is abandoned.
- Paul
Jeff Griffiths is a retired Canadian Air Force officer, and Certified Management Consultant, in Calgary Alta. This column was distributed by the Canada West Foundation.
http://thestarphoenix.com/opinion/columnists/1015-edit-griffiths-viewIt would appear that, despite lofty rhetoric, the Arctic hasn’t been a high priority for the federal government for years.
It should be. Fully 40 per cent of Canada is in the Arctic, we have 162,000 kilometres of Arctic coastline and 25 per cent of the global Arctic within our territory, according to government documents.
Canadian defence policy states that the Canadian Forces must be able to exercise control over and defend Canada’s sovereignty in the Arctic. And yet the only permanent operational unit of the Canadian Forces in the north is the RCAF’s 440 Squadron. It operates four aging Twin Otter aircraft from a base in Yellowknife.
That’s pathetic.[...]
As for talk of Resolute and Nanisivik, they are for *re-fuelling*, not docking, repair, or loading, unloading.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north...anisivik-completion-delayed-to-2018-1.2980312Arctic naval facility at Nanisivik completion delayed to 2018
Project manager says 2018 a 'very realistic' schedule for navy refuelling facility
CBC News Posted: Mar 04, 2015 6:45 AM CT Last Updated: Mar 04, 2015 4:02 PM CT
[...]
http://mytoba.ca/featured/opinion-massive-military-base-help-churchill/[...]
That solution is for the federal government to build a large military base in the Churchill area.
The fight for the arctic
The battle for the arctic is heating up. While Russia and other nations expand their military presence in the north, Canada is doing nothing. Our weakness could cause us to lose out on trillions of dollars of potential wealth in the north. Our “arctic sovereignty” is meaningless unless we have military strength to back it up.
That’s why an investment in our northern military forces now will pay off big time later. We should have at least 10,000 active troops stationed in the north, and we should greatly expand our navy and air force in the region. Building the large military facilities to achieve those goals would be a massive economic boost to the entire northern region, and would be accompanied by infrastructure investments in durable railroads and highways in the region.
Reorienting Churchill around military objectives would benefit the region through substantial job creation, and would benefit our entire country by strengthening our national security and boosting our claim to northern resources. It would be a win-win, and is far superior to anything being discussed currently.
Of course, such a plan would require the government buying the Port of Churchill back from OmniTrax. That’s simply a no-brainer at this point, as it makes zero sense for such a strategic national asset to be owned by a foreign billionaire.
Our national security, resource wealth, and job creation must be first priority for the federal government. A big military build-up in Churchill will achieve all of those goals.
Here's a couple more:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/churchill-port-analysis-1.3696199Analysis
What the closure of an Arctic seaport in Manitoba could mean for Canadian sovereignty
Closure of Canada's only deepwater mainland Arctic port may pose a problem
By Bartley Kives, CBC News Posted: Jul 26, 2016 6:00 PM CT Last Updated: Jul 27, 2016 9:53 AM CT
It's always a big deal when a small town loses its largest employer. But Churchill, Man., is not just any town — and its port is not just any business.
The Port of Churchill is the only deepwater link between Canada's Arctic waters and its railroad network. Or at least it was before Monday, when Denver-based OmniTrax shut it down, offering little warning and even less in the way of an explanation.
The closure stunned the town of about 750, where roughly one in 10 people is employed by the port at some point of the year. The shockwave then rippled down the 1,300-kilometre Hudson Bay Railway through railroad communities like The Pas, Man., before fanning out into the grain fields of northwestern Manitoba and northern Saskatchewan.[...]
http://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/abondoned-churchill/How Ottawa abandoned our only Arctic port
Canada’s only Arctic deep-water port is now closed, leaving workers in Churchill puzzled and any talk of Arctic sovereignty feeling like empty rhetoric
Scott Gilmore
August 18, 2016
[...]
Despite Canada’s patriotic rhetoric about Arctic sovereignty, there is no Coast Guard here. No icebreakers. No Navy. No port police. The small RCMP detachment doesn’t have a boat. Omnitrax’s tugs are moored to their berth, idle. The harbourmaster only comes up when a freighter is expected. The Transport Canada building is padlocked and empty. There isn’t even a life ring to be found. It may be the only commercial deep-water port in the world without any security or rescue resources, and it’s been like this as long as anyone can remember.
If there’s an emergency in the bay, or in the surrounding wilderness, the people of Churchill are on their own. If a search and rescue aircraft is needed, it must fly in from Trenton, in southern Ontario, 2,000 km away.
[...]
I asked if the Prime Minister has ever visited Churchill: No, not yet. The new premier of Manitoba, Brian Pallister, hasn’t either. But a senior Chinese diplomat was up last week to recruit locals interested in Mandarin language training. China is increasingly active in the Arctic; for them, the northern maritime route to Europe is about 6,000 km shorter. Beijing has yet to recognize Ottawa’s sovereignty over the Northwest Passage, which many believe will become increasingly important due to global warming and melting ice. Perhaps this is understandable. The Canadian North is the same size as the European Union but with a population of only 118,000 people—less than the city of Guelph, Ont.
Earlier this year Beijing published a shipping guidebook to Canada’s North, with detailed information on sea ice and weather, and announced it intends to transport cargo through the archipelago soon. China has refused to say whether it will ask Canada’s permission or not.
Either way, we have no choice in the matter. Canada no longer has an ocean-going blue water Navy after years of budget cuts, neglect and shipbuilding delays. The nearest naval base is in Halifax, 4,000 km to the south. And the Coast Guard has only seven icebreakers capable of truly northern operations. None are heavy enough to remain year round. And our force of part-time Canadian Rangers? They are still using Second World War era Lee-Enfield rifles.
RELATED: The sinking of the Canadian Navy
There’s a large inukshuk on a pebble beach behind City Hall where tourists stop for selfies. In recent decades the traditional Inuit landmark, and the North in general, has become a prominent part of our cultural identity. Canadians visit here to be more Canadian—to say they’ve stood on the tundra and photographed polar bears. Our politicians do the same thing, and they know how important the Arctic is to Canadian identity. They fly up, stand by some sled dogs, assure us Canada stretches from “sea to sea to sea,” and declare us an important northern nation.
But the town of Churchill proves these are just lies we tell ourselves. Canada remains huddled next to the U.S. border. Our northern ambitions were abandoned long ago. Now, we project our sovereignty and promote development with nothing more than empty rhetoric.
When Justin Trudeau took office last year he issued his ministers mandate letters containing over 360 different “priorities.” The Arctic was mentioned only twice. One of those, however, was to the minister of defence, commanding him to “renew Canada’s focus on surveillance and control of Canadian territory and approaches, particularly our Arctic regions.”
[...]
The closure of this port, however, is not just a regional economic calamity, like a shuttered pulp and paper mill or under-capacity fish-processing plant.
At a time when climate change is opening up the Arctic Ocean to shipping, and powerful nations like Russia and China pose new threats to Canada's sovereignty, the viability of the only deepwater port connected to the nation's transportation network is no small matter. [...]
There will be military strategists getting involved in the discussion. Real ones...
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