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

Little or no water goes over the falls; the generating station diverts everything

Installed about 300 m (nearly 1000 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 (243 km to the west) and Happy Valley-Goose Bay (288 km to the east).

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

One of 11 generating turbines at Churchill Falls

• See a variety of wildlife, including black bears, caribou and beavers
• 🌍 Churchill Falls Generating Station, ☎ [phone] (Contact the town hall for advance tour reservations). hydroelectric power station  

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), ☎ [phone]. Town hall, school, swimming pool, ice surface, auditorium, grocery store, library, hotel, kitchen and restaurant, fitness centre, gymnasium and bank... all in one building. (updated Apr 2015)
• Strickland's Auto & Gas, 1 John Cabot St, ☎ [phone]. Ultramar petrol station, convenience store, soft-serve ice cream, liquor and beer, hunting and fishing equipment. 

Eat

There is a restaurant in the hotel in the Churchill Falls Town Centre ([phone]).

Drink

The small fuel station has a wide variety of liquor and beers.

Sleep

• 🌍 Height of Land Hotel, 1 Town Centre, ☎ [phone], toll-free: [phone], fax: [phone]. Check-in: 11AM, check-out: 4PM. Hotel with restaurant (7AM-9PM daily, 7AM-8PM Sun, $5-28/main course; sandwiches, burgers, steak, fish and chips). Opened February 2017 to replace the former Midway Travel Inn. $155. (updated Dec 2018)

Connect

Bell provides WCDMA (HSPA+) coverage in the town. Head out onto the Trans-Labrador Highway and the signal dies after the first few kilometres. As of 2017, there is no Rogers signal in Churchill Falls.

Go next

Routes through Churchill Falls

Baie-Comeau ← ← Labrador City ←

W  E

→ Muskrat Falls → Happy Valley-Goose Bay