[6] The Churchill formed a major part of the "voyageur highway" in the 18th to 20th centuries after Dene people showed Peter Pond the Methye Portage which connects the Hudson Bay watershed with the Clearwater — Athabasca — Mackenzie rivers which flow to the Arctic Ocean.

The only operating hydroelectric generating station on the Churchill River is Island Falls, with a capacity of 111 megawatts (MW).

The purpose of the Whitesand Dam mentioned above is to control the amount of water flowing through Island Falls, since the generating station is downstream of the Reindeer River fork.

The project was expected to cost $338 million (equivalent to $1.3 billion in 2020),[8] including transmission and roads, and the capacity of the station would have been 300 MW.

Construction of Wintego would also enable the output of Island Falls to increase by 70 MW, and this benefit is not included in the cost estimate above.