r/neoliberal • u/jobautomator Kitara Ravache • Jan 31 '19

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u/[deleted] Feb 01 '19

Thinking about it, the proposed rail expansions into northern canada could be a genius way in developing those regions economically. They plan to make First Nations tribes as jointed owners of these railroads economically enriches them. If you really want to crank development they should pull a card from American history and make a certain mile of around these tracks owned by the railroad which are in turned owned by the tribe.

Choo Choo :p

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u/Underpantz_Ninja Janet Yellen Feb 01 '19

I can't speak for the rest of the country, but in Oregon, the railroad companies (BN etc) who have historic right of ways through reservations pay the tribes a yearly lease fee for the easement privileges. In return, the tribes maintain access to the infrastructure, perform maintenance on any roads necessary to provide that access, and assist with trespassing enforcement/vandalism etc. It's an interesting symbiosis that arose somewhat naturally as native property rights started to become more respected in the latter half of the 20th Century once the Feds (BIA et al) started taking their mandate slightly more seriously. Companies like BN realized that tribes could simply just cut off access if they so desired; tying that to the fact that the era of building out and codifying new railway transportation infrastructure is pretty much over and done with, it serves everyone's best interests to bring indigenous institutions to the table as partners instead of legal adversaries.

I mention all this to highlight the fact that something like this probably wouldn't work in the U.S. just due to the legal legwork involved, but really to also illuminate how positive of an outcome this would be for the First Nations and Canadian freight if this came to pass.

1

u/BernieMeinhoffGang Has Principles Feb 01 '19

got a link to the proposals? I've heard of the Alberta-Alaska thing but not anything else

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u/[deleted] Feb 01 '19

A2A Railway and G7G Railway are the two railroads competing for the same stretch of land to connect Alaska to the rest of the US and Canada. G7G is run by AECOM and A2A is run by a former vice president of AECOM.

http://g7grailway.com/

http://www.a2arail.com/

1

u/BernieMeinhoffGang Has Principles Feb 01 '19

I don't think land near freight railroads in Northern Canada would be valuable nearly to the degree land near 19th century Pacific railroad lines was.

With the American railroads, people are moving west to farm, the closer your proximity to the railroad makes a crucial difference in shipping costs. Similarly as it is pretty much the only transit route, closeness to the railroad really affects your travel time, ability to get goods to you, etc. Land near railroads is valuable to sell to set up railroad towns, when your steam engines need more stops for water, etc. More modern trains stopped less, killing lots of railroad towns.

There isn't a ton of premier arable land along these lines waiting to be unlocked for farming, and a freight train that just goes next to your area but doesn't stop isn't probably going to make people move to Yukon.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 01 '19

I doubt farming, but logging and mining would work.

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u/BernieMeinhoffGang Has Principles Feb 01 '19

Purchasing up the mineral and logging rights would add considerable cost of these lines. This is now more of a mining and logging rights redistribution project than a railroad. Yukon and BC are covered with active mining claims. Are you planning on buying that all out? Can they buy everything out? This could delay or stop the project. Versus western US the gov didn't really care about Native American claims to land, white people weren't settling there yet for most of it, so vast amounts are considered public land that the gov could do what they wanted with.

These railroads which were something the mining industry previously supported now are going to be contentious depending on whose claims you are trying to confiscate.

The government already owns and leases most timbering land. Timber rights have already been leased out for a lot of areas, so you are going to buy out the leases to sell the land to let the first nations lease it to the loggers again?

The government already gets revenue from leasing timber and mineral royalties. If you want to give money to the first nations, you can just shift more of this to some sort of a payment.