Design changes planned for Lake Manitoba, Lake St. Martin flood-relief channels

October 17, 2024 Canuck

A pair of long-delayed flood-relief channels planned for Lake Manitoba and Lake St. Martin are slated for design changes in order to address concerns about adverse affects on Indigenous communities, Manitoba’s infrastructure minister says.

The provincial NDP government has asked its federal counterpart to pause environmental assessments for the channels while the province reconsiders a project that’s been an infrastructure priority since major flooding along the Assiniboine River and Dauphin River drainage basins led to severe flooding along the shores of Lake Manitoba and Lake St. Martin in 2011.

“Flood mitigation needs to happen in this region of the province. Whether that looks exactly like the old project that was visioned or whether that looks like something else, we will move forward on flood mitigation,” Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Lisa Naylor said Wednesday during a committee meeting at the Manitoba Legislative Building.

Naylor said her government has asked the federal government “to put a pause on the environmental assessment” because they wish to address the downstream effects on Indigenous communities.

“Ultimately, we want the federal government to be able to give us a go-ahead on the environmental assessment,” Naylor said.

“We think that the concerns that they raised about the impact on Indigenous people was a substantial priority.”

After reviewing the final findings of a federal environmental assessment report in June, Environment Minister Stephen Guilbeault said the province’s Lake Manitoba and Lake St. Martin outlet project may lead to “significant adverse environmental effects” for about 30 Indigenous communities, potentially costing them some of their treaty rights.

The project would see the construction of two channels — each about 24 kilometres long — that would drain high water from Lake Manitoba through Lake St. Martin and into Lake Winnipeg. It was designed to reduce flooding in the region, in the aftermath of damaging floods in 2011 and 2014.

The 400-plus-page report by the federal Impact Assessment Agency found that most of the project’s effects on the environment — including its potential impacts on surface and groundwater quality and the land — would be appropriately addressed.

But the agency added that even with mitigation measures and followup programs, the project would still have a significant adverse impact on Indigenous people’s use of land and resources for traditional purposes.

Indigenous leaders welcomed Guilbeault’s comments.

During question period on Thursday, Progressive Conservative Leader Wayne Ewasko (Lac du Bonnet) accused the NDP government of dawdling on the flood-mitigation channel construction project.

Naylor accused the PCs of stalling the project during their seven years in power by refusing to consult with Indigenous communities.

As of 2022, the cost of the project was pegged at approximately $600 million. The government estimates it would take between three and four years to complete.