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Cannon to the east of them, cannon to the west of them, cannon to the south of them

In the fabled poem, The Charge of the Light Brigade, Lord Alfred Tennyson’s wrote, “Cannon to right of them, Cannon to left of them, Cannon in front of them Volleyed and thundered; Stormed at with shot and shell, Boldly they rode and well, Into the j
Brian Zinchuk

In the fabled poem, The Charge of the Light Brigade, Lord Alfred Tennyson’s wrote,

“Cannon to right of them,

Cannon to left of them,

Cannon in front of them

Volleyed and thundered;

Stormed at with shot and shell,

Boldly they rode and well,

Into the jaws of death,

Into the mouth of hell

Rode the six hundred.”

His poem was about the Crimean War of 1853-56, but he could have been writing about the pipeline politics of Canada in the second decade of the 21st century.

Cannon to Energy East, cannon to Northern Gateway, cannon to Keystone XL, volleyed and thundered …

Admittedly bad, but you get the idea. Tennyson’s verse didn’t leave room for Trans Mountain Expansion.

The April 26 announcement by British Columbia Premier John Horgan of even more legal dealings, just a few days after his sit down with Premier Rachel Notley of Alberta and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, shows how truly ineffective Trudeau’s words were. It is becoming increasingly unlikely, by the day, Kinder Morgan will continue with its project.

While President Donald Trump approved the Keystone XL project, who knows if it’s actually going to happen?

So, since 2010, we’ve found we can’t build new pipelines south, east or west. That leaves just one direction – north.

Although in the past I’ve written about the folly of wishing to ship oil via Churchill, Man., in recent days I’m coming around, but not just for oil. Consider what is happening with grain and potash.

Hundreds were given layoff notices in late April because Nutrien said the railways can’t get their product to port. Grain farmers have seen their shipments delayed unbelievably. CN’s CEO lost his job as a result. Despite the last spike being driven in 1885, it appears Canadian railroads still haven’t figured out how to ship through the mountains in winter.

At the same time, the Canadian oilpatch is losing billions per year due to enormous price differentials. Saskatchewan alone is losing $200 million per year in royalties, and $2.6 billion in GDP, due to this. Imagine how much Alberta is losing.

While this is going on, the Port of Churchill has closed. The rail line was severely damaged in the spring of 2016, its owner is in trouble with the feds, and no one with serious money (i.e. billions) really wants it.

It’s time for the oil industry, potash and grain industry, to take a second, third and fourth look at Churchill.

Compared to the tens of billions of dollars lost in these three areas, the entire rail line to Churchill could be redone, to top class standards, at a fraction of the price. Since there’s no traffic on it now, it can almost be done as a greenfield project, and done right, with concrete ties. If we threw just a portion of the idle heavy equipment in the oilpatch at rebuilding that line, building new bridges, bed, whatever needs to be done, it could be completed in remarkable time. There’s thousands in Alberta who could use jobs.

And it’s an existing railbed. It doesn’t need a half-decade long National Energy Board approval process. For all intents and purposes, this would simply be a maintenance project.

At the port itself, which is old to say the least, new, additional grain terminal space could be built as well. It doesn’t take that long to build a concrete terminal on the prairies – just look at the one that popped up out of Melville. A port facility is going to be a lot larger, but it’s fundamentally the same thing, albeit tougher.

As for potash handling, that may take more doing. But I’m sure it’s possible.

But for oil, I know a guy who could get the tankage built in reasonable time. These things are doable.

What about winter? Ice? Short shipping seasons? Yeah, Russia has the same thing, too. And they have an enormous fleet of 40 icebreakers. There are shipyards in Korea and China that would be more than happy to build us a fleet of not only icebreakers, but ice-rated tankers, grain and potash bulkers.

If you think the money isn’t there to pay for these sort of things, consider how much money the Canadian oil, grain and potash sectors have given up in the past 12 months alone. Hell, they could double track the entire path to Churchill, easily, for just a fraction of what we’ve lost. Energy East, alone, was a $12 billion project.

If building pipelines is impossible in this country, we must build rail instead, to Churchill.

— Brian Zinchuk is editor of Pipeline News. He can be reached at brian.zinchuk@sasktel.net.