Port of Churchill - Port Operations

Port Operations

The port is iced in for much of the year and is accessible only between late July and early November. For example, in 2010 the shipping season was July 28 to Nov. 2. Shallow waters also restrict its development as an ocean port. Despite these restrictions the port remains useful for shipping grain and other bulk cargos because shipping by rail costs several times as much, per ton, as shipping by sea.

The port is a compulsory pilotage area. Pilotage is provided by the Great Lakes Pilotage Authority which despite its name is also responsible for pilotage on the Hudson Bay coast of the provinces of Ontario and Manitoba. Pilotage charges between July 20 and October 31 follow a published schedule; outside these dates charges are based on cost recovery.

Typically, the port is used for outgoing shipments of grain, usually from the Canadian Wheat Board. Since 2007 port activity has diversified and increased in line with growth in Arctic mining operations in Nunavut and an expansion in supply ship reloading. In September 2007 the port handled its first domestic export trade, shipping 12,500 tonnes of wheat to Halifax aboard the Arctic supply ship Kathryn Spirit. On October 18, 2007 the port received its first import trade in seven years and the first ever from Russia, a shipment of fertilizer purchased by Farmers of North America. The shipment is supposed to be the beginning of an Arctic Bridge that would link Churchill with the Russian port of Murmansk.

The port is almost entirely reliant on grain from the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) for its viability. Wheat accounts for 90 per cent of all traffic through the port. According to a November 6, 2008 press release, the CWB shipped 424,000 tons of western Canadian wheat through the port of Churchill during the 2008 shipping season. The first wheat left port on August 8, and the last of 15 freighters left on October 20. Exporting Prairie wheat through Churchill saves Canadian farmers money on transportation in terms of rail-freight costs and avoiding Saint Lawrence Seaway charges. The CWB encourages shipments through the use of its Churchill Storage Program which pays farmers to retain grain on-farm for later movement through the port. Because the Churchill shipping season begins before the new wheat crop is harvested each summer, the Storage Program ensures adequate volumes of grain are available for export by bringing in grain saved from the year before.

The port of Churchill exported 710,000 tonnes (700,000 long tons; 780,000 short tons) of grain in 1977, 621,000 tonnes in 2007, and 529,000 tonnes in 2009. This fell to 432,434 tonnes (425,604 long tons; 476,677 short tons) in 2012, slightly below the ten-year moving average of 450,000.