Manitoba Backs Study Of Trade Corridor

WINNIPEG - The Manitoba government is contributing $6.7 million to a feasibility study for an Indigenous-led trade corridor.

The province says the feasibility study for the NeeStaNan project will assess the viability and level of investment required to establish a trade corridor from Fort McMurray, Alberta to the Hudson Bay coast of Manitoba.

The total cost of the study is $26.6 million, with the province providing its share over two years, contingent on funding participation from the governments of Alberta and Saskatchewan, as well as First Nations communities.

The Manitoba government also says the NeeStaNan project would be 100 per cent Indigenous-owned and would reduce shipping distances by 3,500 to 5,500 kilometres from existing transportation routes to Europe, the US Gulf Coast and South America.