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Mining Railway, Road and Other Infrastructure

Overwhelmed railroads threaten Canadian export economy – by Jen Skerritt, Kevin Orland and Federic Tomesco (Toronto Star/Bloomberg – May 9, 2018)

https://www.thestar.com/

WINNIPEG—Every day for more than six months, Jessica Raycraft has confronted hulking mounds of evidence of the great Canadian bottleneck. They’re stranded on her farm — wheat, peas and canola in 91-metre-long, 3-metre-high bags, an astonishing 50,000 bushels, enough to fill 15 rail cars.

“Nobody would take it,” Raycraft said from her home near Tramping Lake in Saskatchewan. It wasn’t until a few weeks ago that space finally opened up on freight trains, and then the fields were such a mess of mud from the spring melt that the bags were stuck. “We couldn’t move it.”

That pretty much sums up the problem with Canada. Its railroads are overwhelmed, threatening the country’s standing as a major exporter of commodities and slamming businesses — from relatively modest ones such as Raycraft’s to the likes of oil-giant Cenovus Energy Inc. — that have precious few transportation alternatives.

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Mining Group Sounds Alarm in Canadian Railway Legislation Fight – by Josh Wingrove and Frederic Tomesco (Bloomberg News – April 30, 2018)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

A proposed law raising foreign ownership limits in airlines and Canada’s biggest railway carrier is headed back to the Senate, the latest step in a tug-of-war that has the mining sector speaking out.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government has spent the past year plodding forward with a legislative overhaul that affects major companies like Canadian National Railway Co., Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd., Air Canada and WestJet Airlines Ltd. Senators changed the bill a month ago, giving shippers like farmers and mines more power in disputes with railways.

Transport Minister Marc Garneau will accept some but not all of the changes made and will add tweaks of his own, meaning the proposed law will need to return to the Senate. It’s unclear how long that will take.

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For truck drivers on Siberia’s ice highways, climate change is terrifying Andrew E. Kramer (Toronto Star/New York Times – April 27, 2018)

https://www.thestar.com/

At a truck stop at the northern terminus of the Vilyui ice highway in northeastern Siberia, drivers make small talk not about life on the road but rather the life of the road.

It might last another week, suggested one driver casually, tucking into a steaming plate of meatballs. “Not likely,” countered Maxim A. Andreyevsky, 31, the driver of a crude oil tanker truck. “Didn’t you see the shimmer on the surface? It will be gone in a day or two.”

Every spring, thousands of miles of so-called winter highway in Russia, mostly serving oil and mining towns in Siberia and far northern European Russia, melt back into the swamps from which they were conjured the previous fall. And every year, it seems to the men whose livelihoods depend upon it, the road of ice melts earlier.

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Grays Bay project dealt huge blow as federal funding denied – by Nick Murray (CBC News North – April 16, 2018)

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/

Government of Nunavut pulls out of project that would connect proposed deep-water port to diamond mines

The Nunavut government has pulled its resources out of the Grays Bay Road and Port Project, after its request for federal funding to cover three-quarters of the estimated $527-million price tag was denied by Ottawa last week.

The proposed project is a 227-kilometre all-season road to connect a proposed deep-water port at Grays Bay — on the Northwest Passage between Bathurst Inlet and Kugluktuk — to the winter road that services the N.W.T.’s diamond mines. It’s one of Nunavut and Northwest Territories’ richest areas in minerals.

The project has the potential to create 2,250 full-time equivalent jobs in Nunavut and contribute $665 million to the territory’s mining operation revenues, according to a January 2018 economic assessment report.

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Chemical, mining industries say rail backlog causing plant shutdowns, lost sales – by Eric Atkins (Globe and Mail – March 22, 2018)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The rail backlog that has angered the North American grain industry and led to the ouster of one railway chief has spread to chemical and metals companies, who say unreliable train service is causing plant shutdowns and lost sales.

Bob Masterson, chief executive of the Chemistry Industry Association of Canada, said inadequate rail service has disrupted production at 13 plants, including five that had “complete shutdowns.” Eight companies said the rail problems extended to their customers, who also had to halt production because of delayed train deliveries, he said, declining to identify the companies.

Teck Resources Ltd., a miner that says it is the biggest customer of Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. and the country’s biggest rail shipper, claimed rail service failures have cost it hundreds of millions of dollars in the past decade.

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Could the road, railway to the Ring of Fire be built by foreign workers? – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – March 14, 2018)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Union warns Trans-Pacific trade deal potentially undermines Canadian contractors, tradespeople on big resource projects

A union representing heavy equipment operators claims the Trans-Pacific Partnership opens the door to an influx of temporary foreign workers that will cost jobs in Canada.

The International Union of Operating Engineers said a loophole in the trade deal signed by the Canadian government this month could take wages offshore and stands to undermine the Canadian economy.

“By signing this deal, the Liberals are failing to protect construction workers in this country,” said Mike Gallagher, business manager of Local 793 in Oakville, representing nearly 15,000 crane and heavy equipment operators across Ontario.

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Noront sees some light from the Ring of Fire – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – February 8, 2018)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Mine developer pleased First Nation partnership, government getting traction on access road

What a difference a year makes. Early last year, Noront Resources president-CEO Alan Coutts delivered a doom-and-gloom speech to a Sudbury crowd that cast doubt about whether the Toronto mine developer even saw a future in the Ring of Fire.

There was frustration over government inaction in planning an access road to reach the isolated James Bay mineral deposits, the glacial pace of dialogue with First Nation communities with the Regional Framework talks seemed to be going nowhere, and Coutts was dropping hints that the project could be shelved if the company’s financial backers weren’t seeing progress.

This time, an upbeat Coutts was striking a more optimistic tone as the featured headliner at the Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce’s Procurement, Employment and Partnerships Conference on Feb. 6.

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Ontario Northland excited about potential of Ring of Fire – by Chris Dawson (Northern Ontario Business – January 31, 2018)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

CEO Corina Moore mused about opportunities for rail network

Corina Moore knows it’s not happening now, but the Ontario Northland CEO is excited about the potential the Ring of Fire has for the Crown corporation.

“It would be the 50 years (of) sustainability for Ontario Northland,” said Moore during a luncheon at the Canadian Club meeting in North Bay on Jan. 24.

“It is a very huge opportunity. It is a number of years out and there are lots of different other mining opportunities that are closer in turn that we are working with.”

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China unveils its Arctic ambitions, declaring it’s a “near Arctic state” – by Jane George (Nunatsiaq News – January 29, 2018)

http://www.nunatsiaqonline.ca/

Policy promotes “Polar Silk Road” for circumpolar shipping

China is ready to take its place at the top of the world, according to the country’s new Arctic policy paper. “China is an active participant, builder and contributor in Arctic affairs who has spared no efforts to contribute its wisdom to the development of the Arctic region,” states the policy white paper, released last Friday, Jan. 26.

In the policy, China says it’s a “Near-Arctic State,” one of the continental states that are closest to the Arctic.

As well, “the natural conditions of the Arctic and their changes have a direct impact on China’s climate system and ecological environment, and, in turn, on its economic interests in agriculture, forestry, fishery, marine industry and other sectors,” the policy paper said.

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China unveils vision for ‘Polar Silk Road’ across Arctic (Reuters Canada – January 26, 2018)

https://ca.reuters.com/

BEIJING (Reuters) – China on Friday outlined its ambitions to extend President Xi Jinping’s signature Belt and Road Initiative to the Arctic by developing shipping lanes opened up by global warming.

Releasing its first official Arctic policy white paper, China said it would encourage enterprises to build infrastructure and conduct commercial trial voyages, paving the way for Arctic shipping routes that would form a “Polar Silk Road”.

“China hopes to work with all parties to build a ‘Polar Silk Road’ through developing the Arctic shipping routes,” the paper, issued by the State Council Information Office, said.

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Seen as first step to multi-modal system with a future rail ‘spine’ (North Bay Nugget -January 25, 2018)

http://www.nugget.ca/

Two Ontario rail advocacy groups say the recent expansion of Ontario Northland Transportation Commission (ONTC) bus service is not only the first sign of hope for Northern public transportation users in many years, but it also paves the way to better rail service in the future.

“Any improvement of our system is welcome, whether that it be rail, bus or any other mode that is applicable and affordable,” says All Aboard Northern Ontario founder Eric Boutilier.

“Northern Ontario has seen nothing but a decline in mobility since January 1990, when the federal government hacked off half of the VIA Rail Canada system. The damage done by those cuts was only made worse by the provincial government’s callous 2012 decision to end the ONTC’s Northlander rail service instead of modernizing it.”

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Northern communities face threat of climate change – by Ron Grech (Timmins Daily Press – January 25, 2018)

http://www.timminspress.com/

TIMMINS – About 120 Indigenous leaders, scientists and government officials are meeting for a conference in Timmins this week to discuss the potential impacts of climate change on First Nation communities within Mushkegowuk region.

The conference, hosted by Mushkegowuk Council, kicked off Wednesday. The prospect of shorter winters is a particular concern to many residents on the James Bay Coast who rely on the ice road to travel south.

Vern Cheechoo, director of lands and resources for Mushkegowuk Council, said if this warming trend continues, it will add to a push for governments to eventually finance an all-season road from the coast. Mushkegowuk Grand Chief Jonathan Solomon said he has observed changes in climate along the coast within his own lifetime.

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Baffinland railway may be “dead,” Pond Inlet group declares – by Jim Bell (Nunatsiaq News – January 8, 2018)

http://www.nunatsiaqonline.ca/

Committee alleges QIA is in a conflict of interest

The controversial 110-kilometre railway that Baffinland Iron Mines Corp. wants to build between the Mary River iron mine and its port at Milne Inlet “may be dead in its tracks,” says a Pond Inlet hamlet committee.

In a statement released near the end of December, when Nunatsiaq News had shut down for the holiday period, the committee, which represents the Hamlet of Pond Inlet and the Mittimatalik Hunters and Trappers Organization, said they have “mounted a challenge” to Baffinland’s railway proposal.

“The Pond Inlet Hamlet Council, together with hunters and trappers organizations from several communities, have written letters, passed resolutions and submitted technical documents opposing the proposed railway,” the Pond Inlet statement said.

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Ontario Northland: Through timber to tidewater – by John Thompson (Railway Age – December 28, 2017)

http://www.railwayage.com/

Some Railway Age readers will be surprised to learn that GO Transit, launched in 1967, was not the first venture of the Province of Ontario into the railway business; that event actually occurred some 60 years earlier. The honor actually belongs to the provincially owned Ontario Northland Railway, which links the city of North Bay, on Lake Nipissing, to Moosonee, on the salt waters of James Bay.

At that time, and until recent years, North Bay was on the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) transcontinental (Montreal-Vancouver) main line. During the past decade, the trackage between a point just east of North Bay, to Smiths Falls (60 miles west of Montreal) was abandoned.

The territories served by the two provincial railways could hardly be more different: GO Transit is based in Toronto, Canada’s largest city, and carries commuters in business attire through an area of subdivisions, apartment towers, industries and fertile farmland.

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Expect action on Ring of Fire in 2018: MPP – by Jim Moodie (Sudbury Star – December 21, 2017)

http://www.thesudburystar.com/

It won’t be too long after ringing in the New Year that the Ring of Fire will begin to feel a bit closer to reality. “We’re talking about shovels in the ground in 2018,” said Glenn Thibeault this week, in reference to a pair of roads the Wynne government is committed to building to the mineral-rich region.

Earlier in the day the Sudbury MPP met with representatives of Noront Resources, which plans to both extract chromite from the James Bay deposits and refine it through a smelter that will be built somewhere in Northern Ontario — potentially Sudbury.

Noront CEO Alan Coutts was thrilled in August when the Liberal government announced it would fund road construction to The Ring, telling The Star at the time this was “the catalyst that was needed.”

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