Owner of private Manitoba rail port questions $18M provincial grant to potential rival

The owner of a privately owned rail port in southern Manitoba’s Red River Valley wants to know why the provincial government provided an $18-million grant to help create a rival rail port further down the valley.

Mid-Canada Transload Service operates two grain elevators along five kilometres of private track alongside Highway 75 and CN’s Letellier subdivision, just south of Letellier, Man., in the rural municipality of Montcalm.

Mid-Canada ships oats, flax, soybeans and other commodities around the world, allowing smaller customers to access Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf of Mexico seaports via Burlington Northern Santa Fe’s U.S. rail network and Canadian National rail lines on this side of the U.S. border.

One week before the 2023 provincial election, Manitoba’s then Progressive Conservative government provided an $18-million grant to buy land and conduct studies for a separate rail port 70 kilometres to the north, in the RM of Ritchot.

This proposed development is the brainchild of JohnQ Public, a corporation owned by 11 Manitoba municipalities. At the time it was issued, the province did not disclose the grant, which Mid-Canada Transload founder Real Tetrault said he only learned about from CBC News reports this spring.

"I was flabbergasted. I couldn't believe that the government of the day would put out a grant to a startup to compete against us," said Tetrault, a former banker, farmer and oat-milling company president who started up Mid-Canada with entirely private capital in 2016. 

"We're enabling Manitoba products to end up in a lot of different countries around the world," he said, standing in a warehouse at his Montcalm operation earlier this month.

"We're paying taxes in the province, so why would they do something like this?"

Manitoba’s NDP government, which took power in October 2023, announced this summer it's reviewing the grant for the rail port, which JohnQ Public calls the Winnipeg Region Rail Port.

The $18-million grant allowed JohnQ to purchase land west of Highway 75 for the rail port, and to conduct engineering and environmental assessments, according to the province.

A progress report prepared by JohnQ Public for the NDP government in July 2024 stated the company was negotiating an agreement with Burlington Northern Santa Fe, also known as BNSF, to serve as an anchor tenant and rail operator at the new rail port.

JohnQ Public’s board chair and chief executive officer did not respond to CBC News requests for comment.

BNSF, which operates a rail yard along a short stretch of track in Winnipeg’s River Heights neighbourhood, has not commented on the proposal.

Tetrault said he does not understand why the company would make such a move.