Manitoba Pipestone - June, 2015

Prime Minister announces new funding for child advocacy centres

On April 24 Prime Minister Stephen Harper was joined by his wife Laureen, and MP for Saint-Boniface Shelly Glover for a roundtable meeting with victims’ advocates at the Winakwa Community Centre in Winnipeg, where he announced the government’s intention to provide new funding for Child Advocacy Centres to help support young victims of crime.

Shoal Lake lifts state of emergency

After nearly two weeks, Shoal Lake 40 First Nation lifted its state of emergency. The state of emergency was declared at the end of April when Transport Canada ruled the First Nation’s 30-year-old ferry unsafe due to a leaky and rusty hull. As the ferry was the community’s only access to health care services and basic needs in neighbouring cities, Elders were evacuated. For more than a century, the community has been isolated after an aqueduct was built to help bring water into Winnipeg. The reserve has no all-weather road although it has been lobbying for years for one. The federal government, Manitoba and Winnipeg have chipped in $1 million each for a feasibility study, but there are no firm commitments beyond that. The community has been under a boil-water advisory for 17 years. The ferry was repaired and put back in the water in a limited capacity, said Chief Erwin Redsky, and it will have to undergo extensive repairs in the fall.

Four years after flood, thousands still not home

On May 8, flood evacuees marked the fourth year of their exile with a march through downtown Winnipeg to the regional headquarters of the federal Aboriginal Affairs department. Nearly 2,000 people from four First Nations around Lake St. Martin are still out of their homes following the 2011 flood. They are being temporarily lodged in rentals and hotels in Winnipeg. “I don’t want the public to think we’re always asking for handouts. We’re not begging. Enough is enough. Give us our community back before we’re all assimilated. We’re not begging. We’re asking for what’s rightfully ours,” said Lake St. Martin Chief Adrian Sinclair. To save Winnipeg, Portage la Prairie and farmland, the province diverted water from the Assiniboine River to Lake Manitoba, flooding out thousands of people. By the end of May 2011, 3,214 evacuees were removed from homes in Lake St. Martin, Little Saskatchewan, Dauphin River, Pinaymootang and about a dozen other First Nations. About 1,300 First Nations people and hundreds of non-Aboriginal cottagers and residents returned home within the next year or two. The Canadian Red Cross continues to pay rent for 1,914 people. The total cost of the evacuation, as of January, was $115.6 million and rising. But the two levels of government and four First Nations cannot agree on how to get the people home. In the beginning of May, the province announced it had set aside $100 million to deal with the chronic flooding of First Nations caused by the flood-protection infrastructure that protects Winnipeg.

Opaskwayak Cree Nation gives notice to Bipole Three

Chief Michael Constant of the Opaskwayak Cree Nation says he is “officially declaring stoppage” on work for the Manitoba Hydro’s Bipole Three transmission line. Approximately 165 km of the line must cross Opaskwayak traditional territory. Constant says the band’s issues are not being addressed. Grand Chief Derek Nepinak, of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, said contracts are starting to be awarded before First Nations communities are being assured that they will get proper economic benefits. Manitoba Hydro has been in discussions with First Nations along the line route since 2008 about economic and environmental impacts of the project. The transmission line is a $4 billion project to bring power from northern generating stations to homes and businesses in the south. Initially, Manitoba Hydro planned to run a shorter, direct line down the east side of Lake Winnipeg but feared that First Nations in the area would fight the project in court. The NDP government ordered Hydro to reroute the line to the west where it will then have to loop southward and back east. Manitoba Hydro plans to have the line up and running by 2018.

First Indigenous woman elected to Manitoba Legislature

Amanda Lathlin became the first Indigenous woman in the Manitoba Legislature. Lathlin won a by-election win for the NDP in The Pas on April 21. NDP Frank Whitehead resigned his position almost a year ago due to health reasons. Lathlin took 1,557 votes to opponents Jacob Nasekapow, a former band councillor in Moose Lake running for the Progressive Conservatives, with 817 votes; Inez Vystrcil-Spence, a Liberal who has worked for the group that represents northern First Nations, with 369. Voter turnout was around 22 per cent. Premier Greg Selinger tweeted: “Congratulations to Amanda Lathlin on her historic win – 1st Indigenous woman elected to the Manitoba legislature.” The Pas has generally been considered a safe seat for the NDP government.

Two Métis among 12 recipients of Order of Manitoba

Donald R. J. Mackey, CD, a decorated Métis veteran, and Karen Beaudin, a City of Winnipeg community resource co-ordinator, will be among 12 people inducted into the Order of Manitoba this year. Beaudin, a proud Manitoba Métis, was named to the order for increasing support, understanding and respect for Indigenous people in the workforce and her ongoing service to the community, while Mackey was honoured for ensuring the sacrifices of First Nations and Métis veterans are never forgotten and encouraging inner-city youth through the establishment of the Sgt. Tommy Prince, MM, Royal Canadian Army Cadet Corps. Among others to be inducted are singer/songwriter Tom Cochrane, former NHL player and spokesman against child sexual abuse Sheldon Kennedy, and Chicago Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews. The Order of Manitoba, the province’s highest honour, recognizes individuals who have demonstrated excellence and achievement in any field of endeavour, benefiting the social, cultural or economic well-being of Manitoba and its residents.