Churchill Falls
Churchill Falls in Labrador is one of the last company towns in Atlantic Canada. Its population of nearly 600 work for the Churchill Dam, a 5.428 gigawatt hydroelectric generating station, the third-largest hydroelectric station (by power output) in North America.
Understand
Installed nearly a thousand feet underground, the eleven-turbine power station cost nearly a billion dollars and took thousands of workers five years to construct. The first power flowed from Churchill Falls on December 6, 1971.
Churchill Falls is infamous among Newfoundlanders for a notorious 1968 deal in which Hydro-Québec locked in artificially-low rates for hydroelectric power from the Upper Churchill well into 2041. As the only way at the time to get Labrador hydroelectric power to market at the time was through Québec, that province set rates so one-sided that, by 1996, the project brought in $1.4 million/day for Hydro-Québec but only $45,000/day for the province of Newfoundland and Labrador.
The hydroelectric generating station is the ninth-largest in the world and the second-largest to be constructed underground (the main station on the LaGrande River at James Bay is the largest). Much of its power is exported from Québec to the US Northeast.
Get in
Access is by the paved Trans-Labrador Highway 500 between Labrador City and Happy Valley-Goose Bay.
There is a tiny local airport, owned by the operators of the generating station; Provincial Airlines flies to Goose Bay and Wabush.
Get around
There is no public transport. The hotel operates a shuttle to the airport, which is 7.5km from the town.
See
- See a variety of wildlife, including black bears, caribou and beavers
- Tour the power plant. (Contact the town hall at +1 709 925-3335 for advance reservations.)
Do
- Sport fishing. The large, enclosed freshwater reservoirs created by the dam are populated by several species of fish, including lake trout, brook trout (speckled trout) and northern pike.
Buy
There are few services other than a hotel, restaurant, supermarket and fuel station; there is no automotive repair garage.
- Churchill Falls Labrador Corporation Town Centre (Donald Gordon Centre), ☏ +1 709 925-3271. Town hall, school, swimming pool, ice surface, auditorium, grocery store, library, hotel, kitchen and restaurant, fitness centre, gymnasium and bank... all in one building.
- Strickland's Auto & Gas, 1 John Cabot St, ☏ +1 709 925-3233. Ultramar petrol station, convenience store, soft-serve ice cream, liquor and beer, hunting and fishing equipment.
Eat
There is a Midway Restaurant in the Churchill Falls Town Centre (+1 709 925-3993), owned by the hotel operator; a second Midway Restaurant location operates at Goose Bay.
Drink
The small fuel station has a wide variety of liquor and beers.
Sleep
- Midway Travel Inn, 2 Ressigieu Drive, ☏ +1 709 925-3211, toll-free: +1-800-229-3269, fax: +1 709 925-3544. Check-in: 11AM, check-out: 4PM. Hotel with airport shuttle. Midway Restaurant serves Chester Fried Chicken, pizza, salad, soups, burgers, fish and chips. $155.
Connect
Bell provides WCDMA (HSPA+) coverage in the town itself. Head out onto the Trans-Labrador Highway and the signal dies after the first few kilometres. As of 2014, there is no Rogers signal (and therefore no GSM service) anywhere in Labrador.
Go next
| Routes through Churchill Falls |
Baie-Comeau ←  ← Labrador City ←
|
W  E
|
→ Muskrat Falls → Happy Valley-Goose Bay |