Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you.
The Public Service Alliance of Canada and its component, the Union of Canadian Transportation Employees, is the union that represents the laid-off workers at the Port of Churchill. We want to share with you how, through privatization of public resources, consecutive federal governments failed a small northern Manitoba community.
I don't know what you know about Churchill, but it's a town of approximately 800 people. Living in this beautiful but isolated community is not always easy. You cannot drive to Churchill. The only way to get in and out is by train or plane. A loaf of bread costs $6, and a box of Corn Flakes is about $11. One of our members told us that it was much cheaper for her to pay the $140 train fare and buy groceries for her family in another town than shop in Churchill.
In the late 1990s, the federal Liberal government decided to privatize the transportation channels that service this community. They sold the Hudson Bay rail line to OmniTRAX, an American-based company that had no vested interest in Canada. As a show of good measure, the government threw in the Port of Churchill, the largest employer there, for a dollar. This was the first time the federal leadership let the people of northern Manitoba down.
Let's fast-forward to 2012. The Canadian Wheat Board, the body that ensured fair distribution of grain through the various Canadian ports, was closed by the federal Conservative government. Instead, big companies were allowed to build their own terminals at ports, and have redirected the shipping of grain through the east and west coasts. The end result is that farmers located in the middle of the country now have increased costs for shipping their grain, and Churchill, Manitoba, has seen a steady decrease in economic activity. This was the second severe blow dealt by the federal leadership that let the people of Churchill down.
This past summer, the people of Churchill were again smacked down when 10% of the population was made unemployed by OmniTRAX.
But this is Canada. When one of our own gets hurt, Canadians rally to help.