Manitoba premier floats idea of 2nd Hudson Bay port to increase trade with Europe

CBC News

· Posted: Apr 15, 2025 1:24 PM EDT | Last Updated: 4 minutes ago

Premier Wab Kinew on Tuesday raised the thought of creating a second port connected Hudson Bay arsenic Manitoba hosted a delegation of European Union diplomats looking to forge stronger links with the province.

European Union Ambassador Geneviève Tuts and 18 heads of ngo of European subordinate states met with Kinew astatine the legislative building.

"We're looking for person relationships … fixed what's happening with the U.S. close now," Kinew told reporters aft a closed-door gathering with the delegation, which arrived Monday for a two-day visit. 

The gathering was a accidental to amusement the countries, which correspond a marketplace of 450 cardinal people, that Manitoba is unfastened for business, helium said.

With the commercialized threats made by U.S. President Donald Trump, determination is simply a request to look astatine options for exports, which could see different larboard distant from Churchill, Kinew said.

This is the archetypal clip Kinew has indicated immoderate openness to the thought of a 2nd port, which has been raised before.

The anterior Progressive Conservative authorities successful Manitoba enactment guardant a backing committedness to survey it, but Kinew's authorities cancelled that.

On Tuesday, helium said the thought would not adjacent beryllium connected the array if Trump didn't upend satellite trade.

Kinew connected Monday said he ordered Manitoba Hydro not to renew 500 megawatts worthy of expiring contracts to export hydroelectricity to the United States.

On Tuesday, helium said he wants to redirect immoderate of that powerfulness to bluish Manitoba to fortify the larboard and marque it into a "really beardown and precise viable commercialized corridor."

"I deliberation that we tin truly crook this play of turbulence into a play of opportunity," helium said.

Tuts said earlier the gathering that the delegation volition focus on galore topics, but she specifically highlighted biotech, cleanable vigor and earthy materials "for the integer transition," referring to captious minerals. She besides underscored the value of making afloat usage of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) signed successful 2016.

"I deliberation that Manitoba has each of the ingredients to deepen adjacent much the relationship and the partnership. Europe has immoderate needs, Manitoba arsenic well. That's possibly the crushed wherefore we person decided to sojourn your beauteous province," Tuts said.

Kinew said the gathering besides covered cultural diplomacy — bringing an EU movie festival to Manitoba and sending creator exhibits and performances overseas. 

The EU heads of ngo volition besides conscionable with the Business Council of Manitoba and the Indigenous Chamber of Commerce, and circuit the Canadian North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD) office and CentrePort Canada, a cardinal hub for planetary trade, a quality merchandise from the state said.

The delegation is made up of the ambassadors and precocious commissioners of Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden.