Officials Lobby for Extended Season

Officials from the northern Canadian port of Churchill, Manitoba, last month lobbied insurance giant Lloyd's of London to reduce the rates and extend the season for the Hudson Bay shipping terminal.

"There's a clear business case for this," Steve Ashton, Manitoba's government services minister said. "We felt that giving the current weather patterns and also the technology that's out there, and the general ability to get ships in, that there was a clear argument for the enhancement of the shipping season, said Ashton.

Ashton is part of a Canadian delegation in Europe that is meeting with Lloyd's officials, international shipping companies and specialty crop merchants to boost Churchill's profile and long-term viability.

Officials from the country's northernmost shipping facility, located on the western shore of Hudson Bay at the mouth of the Churchill River, about 1,200 miles north of Winnipeg, are asking Lloyds to remove a 15 percent insurance surcharge levied on all vessels docking at the port because of the risk of ice damage.

They are also urging the insurer to lengthen the season from the current three months to four and a half months.

"We feel it's a two-million ton port capacity, but to get two million ton, we need an extension of the season," said Bernie Boucher, executive vice-president with Denver-based OmniTRAX, the company that bought the port facility and its rail line in 1997. The port had its longest season ever in 2000, from July 11 to Nov. 9. It shipped 710,000 tons of grain and other commodities to countries including Mexico, South Africa, Morocco and Ireland, compared with 410,000 tons the year before. The port, built in 1929, hit a record load low in 1988, shipping just 50,000 tons.

"We see a light at the end of the tunnel," said OmniTRAX vice-president Bernie Boucher. Canadian officials say they are hopeful that that evidence of milder winters and the advent of satellite technology that can produce images of ice formation and ice movement will convince the insurance underwriter that the risks of using the northern port have declined greatly since 1986, the last time Lloyd's reviewed its rates for Churchill.

Most of the port's business is Prairie wheat and barley for the Canadian Wheat Board. But specialty crops, such as field peas, are becoming an increasing large part of its operations. Last year the port handled 180,000 tons of field peas, triple the tonnage shipped in 1999. The port and its track have undergone extensive renovations since OmniTRAX took it over from Canadian National Railway Co., including a major dredging program currently under way in the harbor. "We're always pursuing new opportunities. We've made quite a bit of progress since 1998," said Boucher.