TGR Rail is one of the companies bidding for part of the ONR when the Ontario government tried to divest ONR. Two of the big items in any purchase/take over would be, job security/layoff and pension. The latter is a big ticket item (billions) and that was the item that make Premier Wynne to shy away from the divestment scheme, since this is the obligation that the previous Liberal Premier "forgot" to factor in the planned divestment of ONR.

It would be expected that these issues won't go away in any new proposal (jointly or not) between the Mushkegowuk First Nation and TGR Rail. Let's face it, the Mushkegowuk does not have the money. The money will have to come from TGR Rail (can it take on the pension obligation?) and the First Nation would offer peace to the joint venture with some employment to the local people and a cut in the profits.

Political and geographic consideration: May be there is an incentive to develop another deep sea port in James Bay for exporting the stuff (from the RoF) to Europe and the Orient, if the passages are passable during the winter time. If not, then it would be for non-iced up season shipping. But nevertherless, it would be useful to have a foothold in the North. Qestion: Would Moosonee a better location compared to Attawapsikat? Moosonee is more well-developed. It has operated a port (was Fed and later trasferred to the Town of Moosonee). It the railhead for ONR and is the terminal for tourists heading north on the Polar Bear Express. There was a nice proposal for a new Port of Moosonee from the School of Architecture of the University of Toronto. It's a school project (Masters?) but it's quite comprehensive and dealing with various aspects of for a new port proposal. Hence it would be a good starting point rather than starting from scratch.

Technical and cost consideration:

- Geology/Terrain: The area near James Bay is water logged, it's poorly drained, and it get worse as you approach James Bay. It a soggy swamp and would not provide a solid footing for the RR.

- The distance from Attawapiskat to the RoF is about the same as the NS route from Nakina to the route which can be built on the esker that would provide solid footing for the RR and road.

- Quite a bit of aggregrates will be required (even for the NS esker route) to build the rail bed. And where would one get the aggregates for the "Attawapiskat" route?

- Another RR link is required to connect Attawapiskat to the Moosonee railhead. This is approximately 200-250km, for a total of $550km (compared to ~300km NS route). The cost of building almost twice an RR on a mainly soggy terrain would be prohibitive. At least, it will take a lot more time to complete, in addition to additional study on the environmental impact plus the technical feasibility of such a proposal.

- Maintenance cost: The maintenance cost for an RR on soggy land would certainly be a lot more than one that has a more solid foundation.

- The North South link is more versatile. It can be linked with the East, the West and the South...and the North (to a new Port of Moosonee) from Hearst to Moosonee via the existing ONR.

Just a few initial comments on a cursory look of the proposal wich has some merit as and an alternative. However, this more costly proposal does not appear to serve as many FNs communitivies as the NS RR would (see KWG transportation corridor proposal).

goldhunter