Manitoba offers to waive sales tax on major Port of Churchill investments

4:47 The Port of Churchill reopens for grain shipments

The Manitoba government is offering to waive the provincial sales tax on major capital spending for the Port of Churchill as it tries to attract international investment.

Premier Wab Kinew made the announcement Monday at a major investment summit in Toronto organized by the federal government.

“We are here in Toronto to tell global investors that the Port of Churchill is open and ready to expand,” Kinew said in a statement.

The province said the new tax measure would apply to proposals for a new energy corridor and liquefied natural gas facilities, upgrades to the railway that runs to the port and icebreaking capacity to support year-round shipping.

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Kinew is to meet with global investment firms while in Toronto to pitch the Port of Churchill as well as mining, infrastructure and agriculture projects totalling more than $85 billion.

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Hundreds of executives and global asset managers have descended on Toronto for Canada’s first investment summit.

Prime Minister Mark Carney, his ministers and premiers from across the country are pitching investors on opportunities in multiple sectors, including energy, critical minerals and defence, over the next two days.

Kinew has championed the Port of Churchill as the province’s best bet for transformative economic growth.

The port has seen little activity in recent years, but in early September it loaded the first grain cargo in six years as well as its first potash shipment.

The province also released studies in August showing that receding ice levels are helping make the arctic shipping route more accessible with much cheaper ships than previously thought.