Mining Railway, Road and Other Infrastructure – Page 17

[Ontario Wynne Liberals] Why trust a government that can’t build a bridge? – by John Robson (National Post – January 13, 2016)

January 13, 2016

http://news.nationalpost.com/

Nipigon Bridge is falling down. So is government credibility.

A superficially impressive twinning of a single bridge built in 1937, the most expensive bridge ever built in Ontario and the only road link between Eastern and Western Canada except via the United States, it opened on Nov. 29, 2015, and buckled on Jan. 10.

It has now been partly reopened by an engineering kluge of uncertain reliability. But how long full repairs will take, or how extensive a renovation is required, is anybody’s guess.

Nobody is yet sure what happened, whether the problem was with the design, the construction, the site or a freak climatic act of God. But the location, just north of Thunder Bay, is not exactly known for its mellow winters.

Northern Ontario Multi-modal transportation study rolls toward finish – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – January 11, 2016)

January 11, 2016

http://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

The province is about a year away from rolling out a multi-modal transportation strategy for the North.

Since 2011, the Ministry of Transportation (MTO) has been studying how people and freight move across the region and have been regularly meeting with regional stakeholders to gather their feedback on how to plan and improve transportation infrastructure over the next 25 years.

Tija Dirks, the MTO’s director of transportation planning, estimates a final report will be presented to premier and cabinet by January, 2017. The strategy is tied to the government’s Growth Plan for Northern Ontario. Once revealed it will provide short, medium and long-term solutions to improve the region’s transportation systems for road, rail, marine, air and other modes.

Ontario’s Nipigon River bridge fails, severing Trans-Canada Highway – by Amy Husser (CBC News Thunder Bay – January 10, 2016)

January 11, 2016

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/

‘This is the one place in Canada where there is only one road, one bridge across the country’

A newly constructed bridge in northern Ontario has heaved apart, indefinitely closing the Trans-Canada highway — the only road connecting Eastern and Western Canada.

The Nipigon River Bridge has been closed for “an indefinite time due to mechanical issues,” according to the Ontario Provincial Police. The bridge remains open to pedestrian traffic.

Steven Del Duca, minister of transportation for Ontario, said in a statement late Sunday the ministry “will do everything they can do to restore the bridge quickly, while also making sure that the safety of the travelling public remains of paramount importance.”

[Only Road Between East and West Canada Severed] New Bridge crippled (Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal – January 11, 2016)

January 11, 2016

http://www.chroniclejournal.com/

The newly-constructed Nipigon River Bridge has come apart, sparking a state of emergency in the Municipality of Greenstone and blocking traffic along the Trans-Canada Highway.

Provincial police closed off the road along Highway 11/17 near the Northern Ontario township Sunday afternoon. With the bridge out, this leaves motorists with no options to directly drive across the country. They would need to take a long detour through the United States.

In a news release, the Ministry of Transportation said that safety is their top priority and conditions are being assessed. The official MTO Twitter handle — @511Ontario — stated “duration of (closure) unknown at this time, possibly will be days.”

Canada’s Ice Roads Are Melting — And That Is Terrible News for Aboriginal Communities – by Hilary Beaumont (Vice News – January 6, 2016)

January 8, 2016

https://news.vice.com/

Aboriginal chiefs in Canada are blaming climate change for water and food shortages on their reserves this winter.

Isolated reserves in northern Ontario rely on ice roads to transport supplies in the winter, but warmer weather means those roads haven’t frozen yet, so food and water are in short supply.

“Everything you can imagine,” Rosemary McKay, Chief of Bearskin Lake First Nation, told VICE News. “They’re running out of food and anything they need in their home. Sugar, tea, flour, you name it.”

Construction on Nunavut mine’s second road to start next month (Nunatsiaq News – January 6, 2016)

January 7, 2016

http://www.nunatsiaqonline.ca/

Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. will move ahead with plans to construct a new all-weather road in Nunavut, this time from its Meadowbank Mine site to its nearby Amaruq exploration camp

The new, single-line road will help the mining company beef up exploration at its Amaruq site, which has the potential to extend Meadowbank’s lifespan well past its current end date of 2018.

Construction on the first phase of the new 64-kilometre road is expected to begin in February 2016: a 16.8 kilometre stretch of road that will run from the mine site to its Vault area.

The second phase, a 47.4 kilometre stretch, will be constructed next winter and be completed in early 2017, the company said.

In Canada’s far north, warm weather threatens vital ice road – by Susan Taylor (Reuters U.S. – December 24, 2015)

January 6, 2016

http://www.reuters.com/

Each winter, in the far reaches of Canada’s north, a highway of ice built atop frozen lakes and tundra acts as a supply lifeline to remote diamond mines, bustling with traffic for a couple of months before melting away in the spring.

This year, the world’s busiest ice road is running late. Unseasonably warm weather has set back ice formation on the Tibbitt to Contwoyto Winter Road, named after the first and last of hundreds of lakes on the route.

The road is still expected to open on schedule in late January, but if current weather patterns continue that could mean more work for crews trying to build the ice or cut the road’s already short period of operation.

Climate change affecting vital winter roads for First Nations, leaders say – by Kristy Kirkup (London Free Press – January 3, 2016)

January 4, 2016January 4, 2016

http://www.lfpress.com/

OTTAWA — Wonky weather conditions are prompting aboriginal leaders to raise concerns about the impact of climate change on winter roads, which serve as lifelines for food, fuel and other necessities in several northern communities.

Isadore Day, the Ontario regional chief for the Assembly of First Nations, said the reliability of the northern winter road network is in jeopardy in his province.

“The winter roads have essentially become a way of life for the communities and now they can’t rely on those winter roads,” Day said, noting the network is used to offset the cost to bring essential goods to fly-in reserves by air.

The problem exemplifies why there was outcry from First Nations during the recent COP21 climate change summit in Paris, Day said.

Ring of Fire junior miner heads to China for infrastructure money – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – December 31, 2015)

January 4, 2016

http://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

KWG Resources’ ultimate dream of building a Ring of Fire railroad may have to be realized through a Chinese bank.

A spokesman for the Toronto junior miner is hyping that a “turning point” has been reached that will jumpstart the stalled development process of the untapped mineral belt in Ontario’s Far North.

KWG announced Dec. 29 that a Chinese railroad engineering firm, China Railway First Survey & Design Institute Group, is conducting a feasibility study to determine if it makes economic sense to run rails north to reach the rich chromite and nickel deposits of the James Bay region.

“The odds are extremely high,” said Bruce Hodgman, KWG’s communications director, in categorizing the likelihood of his company securing offshoring financing with a “bankable feasibility study” of KWG’s railroad concept.

CP’s $28.4-billion bid a ‘substantial’ premium for Norfolk investors: CEO – by Eric Atkins (Globe and Mail – November 18, 2015)

November 18, 2015

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. has released the letter it sent to Norfolk Southern Corp.’s chief executive officer outlining the proposed $28.4-billion (U.S.) takeover of the Virginia-based railroad.

In the letter dated Nov. 9, CP says the cash-and-stock offer of $46.72 a share and 0.348 in stock is a “substantial” premium to form a combined company that will be able to achieve more than $1.8-billion in cost savings “over the next several years.”

CN pulls the plug on Algoma passenger train – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – July 10, 2015)

July 10, 2015

Established in 1980, Northern Ontario Business provides Canadians and international investors with relevant, current and insightful editorial content and business news information about Ontario’s vibrant and resource-rich North. Ian Ross is the editor of Northern Ontario Business ianross@nob.on.ca.

The search is on for a new operator to take over a Sault Ste. Marie-to-Heart passenger train service after Canadian National Railway (CN) announced it will cease operations on July 15.

The repeated inability of Railmark Canada and its president-CEO R. Allen Brown to obtain financing led CN, the track’s owner, to finally terminate the service.

The same issue cropped up in June, forcing CN to step in and take back a popular sister service on the same line, the Agawa Canyon Tour Train excursion, from the hands of Railmark after a satisfactory agreement couldn’t be reached.

For the Sault Ste. Marie Economic Development Corporation (EDC) and a regional stakeholders group, it’s back to the drawing board with a full-out scramble to find a replacement operator during the height of the summer tourism season.

VIA proposes replacing Budd Cars – by Jim Moodie (Sudbury Star – June 23, 2015)

June 23, 2015

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

A new plan for the Sudbury-White River VIA train puts the remote rail service in jeopardy, an industry analyst is warning.

Greg Gormick, a policy consultant, says VIA Rail president Yves Desjardins-Siciliano recently told a group of southwestern Ontario mayors that the self-powered Budd Cars that ply the Sudbury-White River line will be repurposed on routes in their area and replaced in the North by a locomotive-hauled passenger coach and freight car.

“I was shocked,” says Gormick, who sat in on the meeting. “I can’t conceive of this, knowing the costs behind it.” He says Desjardins-Siciliano described the plan twice last week, once to a private audience in St. Mary’s and then at a public meeting Sarnia.

“He’s promoting this fantasy shuttle service that would go back and forth between London and Sarnia and London and Windsor, using the Budd Cars,” Gormick says.

VIA rail is an arm’s-length Crown corporation, but Gormick says there is a political angle to the VIA president floating the idea at this time. “We’re talking about someone who works for the Conservatives and he’s out doing some pre-campaigning for them,” said Gormick. “This plan for southwestern Ontario conveniently wouldn’t kick in until after the election.”

NEWS RELEASE: Official opening of the Port of Saguenay rail link and intermodal rail yard – Vital rail link for the regional mining industry in Quebec

June 1, 2015

SAGUENAY, QC, May 29, 2015 /CNW Telbec/ – The Honourable Denis Lebel, Minister of Infrastructure, Communities and Intergovernmental Affairs and Minister of the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec, on behalf of the Honourable Lisa Raitt, Minister of Transport, was joined today by Mr. Serge Simard, Parliamentary Assistant to the Premier for the Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean region and Member for Dubuc, on behalf of the Honourable Robert Poëti, Quebec Minister of Transport, Mr. Jean Tremblay, Mayor of the City of Saguenay, and Mr. Richard Létourneau, Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Saguenay Port Authority to mark the official opening of the rail link connecting the Grande-Anse terrminal in the Port of Saguenay to the Roberval-Saguenay rail line and of the intermodal rail yard at the Port of Saguenay.

The 12-kilometre rail link and the intermodal rail yard at the Port of Saguenay will facilitate the transfer of goods from the railway network to ships docking at the Grand-Anse marine terminal. Traffic will be bidirectional.The new rail link will provide shippers with additional transportation options, increase the efficiency and capacity of port operations, and facilitate interprovincial and international trade.

The Grande-Anse terminal in the Port of Saguenay benefits from its deep water location, its industrial development potential, and its geographic location near urban services in the heart of a region that has direct access to the regions of Northern Quebec and has a number of heavy industries, particularly in the aluminum manufacturing and forestry sectors.

Excerpt From Call of the Northland: Riding the Train That Nearly Toppled a Government – by Thomas Blampied

May 21, 2015

To order a copy of Call of the Northland: Riding the Train That Nearly Toppled a Government, click here: http://www.northland-book.net/buy.html

Historian, author and photographer Thomas Blampied has been interested in railways for as long as he can remember. Growing up east of Toronto, he spent summer evenings sitting trackside with his father watching streamlined VIA trains race past and long freight trains rumble by. From these early railway experiences grew a lifelong passion for railways and rail travel which has manifested itself through model railroading, photography, writing, railway preservation and the academic study of railway history. This is his fourth book about railways in Ontario. He has studied in both Canada and the United Kingdom and currently resides in Southern Ontario.

Chapter 14: Transformation

After a year of no Northlander service, very little else had changed in the divestment saga. While Michael Gravelle was on record as stating that divestment was not the only option, the continued indecision and lack of transparency did not lend credibility to the government’s new position. For his part, Vic Fedeli was especially frustrated that documents related to divestment remained restricted. Meanwhile, the future of the ‘Ring of Fire’ appeared even less rosy.

Having failed in its request for an easement, Cliffs Natural Resources decided to appeal the decision, a move which would mean years of court proceedings. As Cliffs prepared for the long-haul, passengers on the ONTC’s buses gave up travelling at Thanksgiving as it was standing room only for a second year running, with even the most determined passengers opting to try to travel another day in the hopes of getting a seat.

The divestment was only one of many concerns in the north. To local leaders, the plight of the ONTC was symptomatic of wider problems in the region. While resource extraction continued across the north, raw material was increasingly being moved out of the province to be processed in other jurisdictions with cheaper energy costs.

Northeastern Ontario municipalities back First Nations’ proposal for a railway across traditional lands for Ring of Fire – by Len Gilles (Timmins Daily Press – May 19, 2015)

May 19, 2015

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

Martin was a guest speaker at the spring meeting of NEOMA, the Northeastern Ontario Municipal Association, which met in Iroquois Falls on Friday.

He outlined for municipal leaders from across the North how the plan is to build and east-west rail corridor from Moosonee, up to Kashechewan and then over to Webequie, where the Ring Of Fire mining prospects are located. Further to that, Martin said Mushkegowuk also wants to install a high voltage hydro transmission line to the same area.

The Ring of Fire is the name given to the vast deposit of chromite and nickel, located in the McFauld’s Lake and Webequie area, about 600 kilometres north-west of Timmins. The prospect is valued in the tens of billions of dollars.

After an extensive presentation by Grand Chief Martin on Friday, NEOMA members voted on, and approved, a resolution of support put forward by the City of Timmins, seeking formal support for the Mushkegowuk plan.

Before the resolution could be voted on, Cochrane mayor Peter Politis stood up to say he had a concern about the Timmins resolution, which he said had a “nuance” about the conceptual support for Mushkegowuk to privatize the rail service in Northeastern Ontario.