The Huron Central Railway task force held a meeting with representatives from businesses and communities on July 25, in an attempt to get all parties on the same page before moving ahead with plans to secure $42 million over five years from both federal and provincial levels of government.
Executives from Genesee & Wyoming Canada Inc. – the parent company of the Huron Central Railway (HCR) – were also on hand to deliver a presentation, making a case for the cash needed to facilitate capital improvements for the railway.
“What the people are demonstrating here is a lot of support for Huron Central, and they’re like us – they believe that we’re important for the development of the region – so I’m pretty confident that we will get what we ask for,” said Genesee & Wyoming Canada Inc. president Louis Gravel following the meeting.
The HCR – which enables Algoma Steel, Domtar and EACOM Timber Corporation to ship its goods along the 283-kilometre, shortline railway linking Sault Ste. Marie to Sudbury – will cease operations by the end of 2018 if there’s no money on the table from the feds and the province to cover its maintenance costs, including structural bridge repairs, drainage and the changing over of its rails and rail ties.
Genesee & Wyoming Canada Inc.’s decision to threaten the closure of the railway comes on the heels of its rejected grant application to the federal government’s National Trade and Corridors Fund (NTCF) back in April 2018.
“Unfortunately, we’re trying to get the support for more than 12 months now, and we were not successful with the trade corridor fund developed by the federal government,” Gravel said. “I think that’s why we took the decision to cease our operation.”
The HCR says that it needs the money because it’s a Class 2 shortline railway that doesn’t have the financial capacity of a Class 1 railway.
It also requires $9 million just to comply with new grade crossing regulations that come into effect in 2021.
Part of the desired $42 million would go toward the construction of a mechanical shop for the railway based in Sault Ste. Marie in order to improve efficiency.
Those costs, combined with maintenance and repair costs, has the City of Sault Ste. Marie’s HCR task force trying to garner support – through support letters and resolutions from townships and communities from the Sault to Sudbury – leading up to the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) meeting in mid-August, where the HCR task force will be meeting with all levels of government to make its down-to-the-wire pitch for the $42-million cash influx before year’s end.
“I think this time the stakeholders know the job that we have to do,” said HCR task force member Steve Butland. “Obviously, they’ve come from every point east of Sault Ste. Marie to be here today.”
“They know the importance of it, and I think we have full support.”
The Huron Central Railway received $33 million in order to carry out extensive repairs to the railway in 2010.
The railway – which has a 40-year lease from Canadian Pacific Railway – currently employs 43 people in Sault Ste. Marie.
