Delays in alerting Peguis First Nation to major flooding problems

 On Monday, May 9th, I asked the Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure why the warning to Peguis about major flooding this year came so late, and what the government is doing to ensure better forecasting in the future. 

Peguis First Nation Flood Preparation

Prov­incial Flood Projections

Hon. Jon Gerrard (River Heights): Madam Speaker, Thursday, April 28th, the Manitoba caucus was given a briefing on the flood–which I thank the minister.

      During the briefing, I asked spe­cific­ally about concerns for the Peguis First Nation. There were no imme­diate concerns raised. Two days later, Peguis was in the middle of a very severe flood and Glenn Hudson, chief at Peguis, was expressing concerns that they had not received sufficient warning from the Province of the potential for such severe flooding.

      Why was there such a drastic failure to provide an early warning to the Peguis First Nation so they'd have more time to prepare, and what measures will be taken to ensure such a terrible failure in the Province's pro­jections does not occur in the future?

Hon. Doyle Piwniuk (Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure): Thank you for the–I want to thank the member for the question.

      When we had a briefing, the thing that was–when it came to Peguis First Nation, the thing was there was concerns about the amount of snow and the rain that was coming. We did mention it to the member.

      And the thing is, when it comes to First Nation com­mu­nities, it's Indigenous Services Canada that is actually the one that looks and works with the First Nations Com­mu­nities, along with the Red Cross.

      And the thing is, Madam Speaker, we–our EMO staff are out there all the time. Our–when it came to our Trans­por­tation and Infra­structure staff, when it comes to culverts, our staff are out there working on it, making sure that the water flows–as much of it. And then myself and the Premier (Mrs. Stefanson) were out there.

      I didn't see any signs of the op­posi­tion or the Liberals out there, Madam Speaker.

      Thank you.

Later in the Afternoon, I had the opportunity to speak at greater length about the situation at Peguis. 

Mr. Gerrard: The flood is clearly a matter of urgent public importance in Manitoba. Of this, there's no question. We're in the middle of the flood of 2022. There is more rain coming today and tomorrow in the fourth Colorado low, and we have more rain coming later on in possibly another Colorado low this weekend.

      For many who have been affected by the flood, these are des­per­ate times. I understand already there are about 1,900 people who've been evacuated: about 1,600 from Peguis First Nation and about 300 from varied locations in the rest of the province.

      One of the reasons that we must have this matter of urgent public importance fully debated is that there has been an almost unbelievably poor ability to fore­cast the flood at Peguis and to give the people of Peguis First Nation adequate warning of the flood.

      On Thursday, April 28th, as I spoke earlier, Manitoba Liberals were given a briefing on the flood. I asked about the situation at Peguis First Nation, and one of the reasons that I asked spe­cific­ally about Peguis First Nation was that the munici­pality of Fisher, located just south of Peguis First Nation, had declared a state of emergency on April 27th, and their notice spe­cific­ally mentioned concerns at Poplarfield, Fisher Branch and Hodgson. The first two are just south of Peguis and Hodgson is right beside Peguis.

      And yet, when I asked about Peguis First Nation, the minister responded by saying his concern was with the outlet channel from Lake Manitoba to Lake St. Martin and the channel from Lake St. Martin to Lake Winnipeg. The minister didn't mention Peguis First Nation at all.

      Strangely, in the flood, which was two days later, Peguis First Nation was in the middle of the worst flood that they've ever ex­per­ienced. People are talking about a one-in-a-hundred-year flood. That's like the '97 flood in Manitoba.

      It should have been possible to give the people of Peguis First Nation several weeks. I suggest a month's advance warning of the potential risk would be reason­able. It's true that the snowstorms earlier in April were a sig­ni­fi­cant factor, but there should have been much better monitoring of the snowpack in the Fisher River watershed than occurred and much better infor­ma­tion on the potential risk much earlier than was provided.

      My son Charles has been involved in measuring the snow pack in British Columbia and predicting the expected runoff. It can be done, and it must be done for the Fisher River watershed in the future. Note that we're talking about areas of the watershed which are outside of Peguis First Nation, which are the ones which contribute the water to flood Peguis. The con­tri­bu­tion from snow in Peguis First Nation itself is much less.

      Only when a com­mu­nity can have adequate warn­ing of a potential flood can the com­mu­nity properly prepare. We ensure such flood warnings for many other com­mu­nities in Manitoba: from Emerson to Melita to Brandon to Swan River and The Pas. We can and we must do the same for First Nation com­mu­nities, including–parti­cularly for Peguis.

      This snowpack monitoring and monitoring of risk–we have a lot of ex­per­ience with this in Manitoba, but we didn't do it. Some­thing broke down, some­thing was not done as well as it could have been done to warn Peguis First Nation and, as of today, there are about 1,600 people who've had to be evacuated.

      The fact that these 1,600 people have had their homes and livelihoods threatened is disturbing and unsettling. All Manitobans should be concerned when so many people have to be evacuated. The extent of these evacuations worries us all and points to major gaps in flood defences in our province.

      It's im­por­tant that we have, today, a full debate on this matter of urgent public importance so that MLAs can contribute to discussion of where these gaps are and the measures that are needed to fix the gaps.

      The potential for flooding along the Fisher River at Peguis has been known for many years. On many occasions in the past, I've called for the dev­elop­ment and imple­men­ta­tion of flood pro­tec­tion and flood pro­tec­tion plan for Peguis. I've been in discussions where there have been alternatives described, either storing water upstream or building a channel to divert water around Peguis itself. Either way, or some combination could provide pro­tec­tion for the people who live on Peguis First Nation.

      These solutions have been talked about for many years. Sadly, though, the NDP, when in gov­ern­ment, knew of the problem, they failed to act. The PCs in the last six years have done no better. Shame on both the NDP and the Conservatives. It's imperative that we discuss today this situation and that it is not delayed further.

      Madam Speaker, we are in a time when at the very top of the agenda for all of us is recon­ciliation. Recon­ciliation means working and planning together, recog­nizing the harms that have been done in the past–as they have been done to people in Peguis First Nation–and working out a plan, as we say in our land ac­knowledgment every day, to col­lab­o­rate to solve these problems in the future.

      Madam Speaker, to not have this matter of urgent public importance today would be a step back from the motion we are making, from the forward progress we are making on recon­ciliation. And I would urge the gov­ern­ment to reconsider their position, to join all members in a process of recon­ciliation which will allow us to discuss this situation–the situation of the flooding at Peguis–today and not wait for any other day in the future.

      It needs to be done now. The situation is very serious and I hope that we will have co‑operation from the gov­ern­ment and the op­posi­tion parties and us–we are in favour, so that we can have this very im­por­tant debate and we can have the process of recon­ciliation move forward, as it should and must today.

      Thank you, Madam Speaker.