Niki Ashton says relief is the only way to describe the reaction to the announcement that a new northern led consortium will be taking over the Hudson Bay rail line and the port of Churchill. Relief because it means that repairs will be made to the rail line, because it means the port can reopen and because Omnitrax will no longer be able to hold the community of Churchill and the government of Canada to ransom. She says what we saw with Churchill and the rail line was the result of a disastrous privatization by the Liberal government in 1997.

Ashton adds it makes no sense to privatize strategic assets like Churchill. At a time when the federal government is looking at doing much the same with airports and other transportation infrastructure we need to recognize the degree to which privatization has failed in the past. She concludes the true credit for what has happened does not go to the federal government it goes to Churchill and the Northern First Nations that worked to find a solution.