(VIDEO) Churchill sets first shipment of grain to sea

The Port of Churchill opened its grain-shipping season this week, sending out the first vessel on Wednesday.

It's one of about a dozen shipments of grain from northern Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Alberta that will come out of Churchill this year. The shipping season usually lasts until early November, and this year they expect to ship over 400,000 metric tonnes of grain. And this year, they're hoping to expand from traditional grain crops.             

"We're going to ship lentils out of here this year," says Merv Tweed, president of Canadian operations for OmniTRAX, the company that owns and operates the port. "I see an opportunity for those specialty crops, the pulse crops, there's a lot grown in northern Saskatchewan and northern parts of Manitoba, and it's good quality, and there's a demand for it. So we've reached out, and we're hoping to ship around 75 to 80 thousand metric tonnes of that this year, too."

The port is not only important for grain handling and transportation, it's important for the community of Churchill, as it's the second-largest employer in town, after the hospital.

"We employ anywhere from probably 75 to 80 people over the season, and they need those jobs. We feel that we're a big part of that community," says Tweed. "I think to some degree we're treated like a utility, although we're not paid like a utility. That's the conversation we're having with the goverment to say, look, we provide services to all the communities along the rail line and to the Port of Churchill, we need to be recognized and paid in that fashion as well. That's what we're presenting both to the provincial and federal governments."

With increasing economic activity in the north and changing dynamics in international trade, officials feel Churchill is ideally positioned to capture new business in the future. The Port of Churchill has played a big role in the development of Canada's North since its opening in 1931.