WINNIPEG — The Rural Municipality of St. Clements is mounting a campaign to have the province ban ice-fishing shacks from the Red River in a bid to end the mess left behind each spring.
In a letter to Water Stewardship Minister Christine Melnick, the rural municipality north of Winnipeg says it’s seeking support from the neighbouring RM of St. Andrews and the City of Selkirk to prohibit the installation of permanent ice-fishing shelters.
Pails of human waste, treated lumber, furniture, booze bottles, and five entire shacks were among the items left behind after the March 15 deadline to remove ice shacks.
St. Clements Coun. Robert Belanger says no amount of education or enforcement has prevented the annual “environmental disaster” on the Red, which he points out is a Canadian heritage river.
The RM also warns the maze of ice shacks made it difficult for ice-cutters working to minimize flooding damage from spring ice jams.
Melnick was not available for comment.
However, Andre Desrosiers from Manitoba Natural Resources said he’s disgusted at what he sees when he patrols the river in the winter.
“Seventy-five per cent of the people using these permanent shelters, they’re no longer fishing shelters. They’re party places,” he said.
Some shacks Desrosiers has removed after the March 15 deadline didn’t even have fishing holes, he said.