ALM Letter to Minister Schuler

Note that since the letter was written we became aware of an extension to the timeline for written public submissions. The new deadline is May 25.

May 5, 2020

Dear Minister Sculer:

The Association of Lake Manitoba Stakeholders has been actively involved in the plan to provide permanent flood mitigation for Lake Manitoba since 2011.

Nine years hence we have seen the Province and Federal Governments commit to funding the Lake Manitoba-Lake St Martin Channel. The design and capacity of the channels have been approved.

The process moved to an environmental assessment prior to licencing the project.

An exhaustive round of consultations concluded with 39 northern communities having the opportunity to express their views on the channels. It must be noted that many of these communities had dubious connections to the project.

 In February it was announced that “written comments are being accepted until April 23” to allow for interested parties to comment in writing. Given the exclusion of Lake Manitoba from the consultation process cited it was no surprise that many of our members assumed this was for First Nations and did not respond.

It is now May 5. Has the process concluded? What is the timeline and process to have ‘shovels in the ground’.

Increasingly, our members are discouraged and doubt that we will ever see the completion of this vital flood mitigation. In good faith communities have rebuilt homes and continued with family farms and ranches. They read the comments of many on your website and found an overwhelming number of negative reviews dealt with historical grievances suffered by Indigenous communities. We get that. However, we are perplexed wondering how these comments relate to an environmental review.

We have experienced many frustrations since 2011. The relationship to high water and flooding with the operation of the Portage Diversion is obvious. The fact that no review occurred when ‘improvements’ result in the ability of the Diversion to flow more water into Lake Manitoba than in 2011.

We were told by representatives of the former government at that time that “we had to put the water somewhere” in order to save communities further down river. Now it is our turn. We need the channels to protect our communities, homes, crops and livestock.

Wouldn’t it be a grand idea to use May 31 to announce the licensing of the project?  It would change this day of infamy for those of us evacuated to one of hope and celebration.

Jack King

President

The Association of Lake Manitoba Stakeholders