Port of Churchill, railway improvements would cost fraction of LNG project proposed by Manitoba premier

The premier is in Toronto to attend the Canada Investment Summit, Prime Minister Mark Carney's effort to secure international investment in major Canadian construction projects.

Kinew is promoting a Port of Churchill expansion that would include a floating, offshore liquefied natural gas platform. This version of the project would cost $70 billion to $80 billion, the premier said in August.

Arctic Gateway Group, which owns the port as well as the Hudson Bay Railway, says the money required to conduct more basic work in order to make Churchill a viable commercial port is an order of magnitude below the premier's estimated price range.

"It's a fraction of those numbers," Arctic Gateway CEO Chris Avery said Friday in an interview, defining that fraction as "less than four per cent" of Kinew's estimate in August.