WINNIPEG — It’s going to cost millions and could take years but Ottawa’s special ministerial flood liaison says a chronically flooded native reserve in Manitoba must be permanently moved to higher ground.
Sid Dutchak was appointed by the minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development in June to examine the impact of flooding on a cluster of Manitoba’s First Nations north of Lake Manitoba.
He said it’s going to take time to relocate Lake St. Martin reserve — the hardest hit — but there is no point in rebuilding some parts of the community.
Flooding has destroyed homes and since the water is still high, he said many others are threatened by ice this winter.
“I don’t see any choice,” Dutchak said in an interview. “Some of that land always was low land and this year it’s become more of a problem. It will never come back to being adequate.”
Hundreds of residents of the northern reserve were evacuated from their homes in the spring and have been unable to return since. They are living scattered about Winnipeg in hotels while their children are also dispersed — some attending school in two church basements while others are enrolled in various schools around the city.
Aboriginal leaders — including Shawn Atleo, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations — have said the constant turmoil is taking its toll. Students have missed out on school and are being exposed to drugs, alcohol and gangs, they say. Residents are disconnected from each other and their traditional way of life.
Chiefs, the province and Ottawa have been looking into a temporary home closer to the reserve while studying possible sites where the community could relocate permanently.
Many complain things are not being done fast enough but Dutchak said finding a new home for a reserve takes time.
“It’s very expensive,” he said. “It’s a lot of money when you relocate people and you need to build infrastructure and housing. It’s a very expensive undertaking so you try to minimize the mistakes.”
But Manitoba’s Aboriginal Affairs Minister Eric Robinson is getting impatient.
Robinson said he has never met Dutchak or had a phone call from him, despite the fact that Robinson’s office has been working with the Lake St. Martin First Nation since the spring. The relocation of the chronically flooded reserve is long overdue, Robinson said.
“It should have happened back in 1961,” he said. “This is something that has been long needed. The longer we’ve waited . . . the issue has dragged on and it’s worsened. Who is suffering? It’s the people from Lake St. Martin.”
In the meantime, Robinson said the province is focusing on establishing a temporary home for evacuees at a vacant radar base near the reserve. The province has bought the land and is now looking at purchasing enough pre-fabricated homes to accommodate homeless residents.
“We’re committed to ensuring that the people of Lake St. Martin no longer have to suffer.”
Lake St. Martin Chief Adrian Sinclair could not be reached for comment.