Churchill business offers to replace Trudeau's moccasins, if PM helps struggling town

Penny Rawlings has a replacement pair of moccasins for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau but they come with a plea to help her town of Churchill.

In 1982, Rawling's husband, Keith, outfitted the family of then-Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau with fine sets of handmade slippers. Justin was about 12at the time.

A letter from Pierre Trudeau hangs in the Arctic Trading Company in Churchill, thanking the Rawlings for the fur-trimmed, hand-beaded shoes, saying "the four of us appreciate the warmth and comfort."

Rawlings, who has been helping to run the business in the northern Manitoba town for 38 years, says the latest Trudeau prime minister can get a new pair but the offercomes with a message about negotiations to fix the flooded rail line to Churchill: If you are serious about Canada's northit starts here in Churchill.

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"You want sovereignty [over the North]. If that's what you want and you want Canada to be great and keep all this land, you've to keep the people up here. You've got to support the people," Rawlings said.

Trudeau said in Winnipeg in July that Denver-based Omnitrax was liable for repairs to the rail line, damaged by a flood in May.

"He's made a statement,"Rawlings said. "When does the statement become action?"

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Since the summer, negotiationseven with the help of a former head of the Privy Council have not resulted in a scoop of the rail bed being repaired.

It's time for Ottawa to make a deal or push out the American company, Rawlingssaid.

"If Omnitrax wants out, get them out of here. Bring in people that want to be here," she said.

Shipping costs for many items have skyrocketed since the track has been unusable. And without Via Rail bringing up visitorsin the summer and early fall, traffic and tourism dollarsinthe town on Hudson Bay havedropped.

Rawlings describes September as "awful" in Churchill for visitors.

"It was dead in this town," she said. "There was very little business and losses are starting to rise."

Rawlings' frustration is mirrored on the face of the town's mayor Mike Spence, who has been in talks for months about finding a solution between Ottawa and Omnitrax. Deals that seemed to beclose haven't happened.

"We're at a point where you tend to lose faith pretty quickly," he said. "So we are counting on the feds to step up to the plate here and get the line repaired."

Earlier this week, federal Natural Resource Minister Jim Carr hinted there might be news on Churchill coming soon.

In the meantime, the town is bracing for a symbolic, yet technically tricky, event this coming weekend.

Via Rail has been forced to move locomotives and passenger cars stuck in the town since the flood by ship. Rust is starting to form on the expensive equipment and the company has said it has no choice but to crane the massive units on board a ship headed for Montreal.

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"It can't stay here, otherwise we aren't going to have a train next spring," saidlocal business owner Dave Daley.

Frustrated like so many locals, Daley once contemplated some kind of public action to keep the trains in town. Now he's resigned to the fact that the gear can't remain.

Via crews must routinely turn over the engines in the locomotivesto keep them from deteriorating.

As the town prepares for the trains to head out, it is readying for propane and gasoline which usually arrives by rail to pull into port on a ship.

The fuel is critical for the town to survive the biting cold of the coming winter.