TORONTO — Multiple countries have expressed renewed interest in a potential upgraded port in northern Manitoba for shipping energy across the Atlantic Ocean since the U.S.-Israel attacks on Iran, Canada’s energy minister said.
Energy and Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson told POLITICO on Tuesday that the Port of Churchill on Hudson Bay, which offers a quick shipping route to Europe, has been “intriguing to multiple countries.”
“Given what’s happened the last few days, there is clearly a desire for more Canadian critical minerals — energy — to be shipped east,” Hodgson said in an interview at the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada conference, which has attendees from 125 countries. He added, “Churchill is an opportunity … to move east across the Atlantic.”
The war on Iran has added new urgency to Canada’s ambitions of becoming an energy superpower, with the Manitoba port already on Prime Minister Mark Carney’s list of infrastructure and energy projects that his government is trying to fast-track in response to President Donald Trump’s economic threats. Canada has traditionally relied on the United States to get its oil and gas to foreign markets by shipping it to American ports.
