Province steps in to fight forest fire near St. Theresa Point

The province took its first action Thursday to fight a northern forest fire with bulldozers and air power south of St. Theresa Point, an Oji-Cree First Nation where hundreds of people have been evacuated by air because of billowing smoke.

The measures to fight the fire are being taken to provide reassurance, not because there’s a threat the First Nation will go up in flames.

"It’s just to provide extra security to the community as well as peace of mind," Manitoba Conservation’s chief forest fire fighter Gary Friesen told media.

With the fire holding at approximately eight kilometres south of the community, there’s no direct threat from flames, Friesen said. The province’s manager of the Conservation department’s fire program made his statements after northern chiefs accused the province of leaving it to fight the fire on its own.

Friesen said the decision to put feet on the ground about 700 kilometres north of Winnipeg came after a meeting Wednesday with leaders at St. Theresa Point, one of four Island Lake communities that has seen the bulk of evacuations due to forest fires in the past week.

"There are two helicopters, three bulldozers and firefighters working on the north part of the fire... the entire fire isn’t being fought. It’s just the north part closest to the community," Friesen said.

The fire covers approximately 5,000 hectares and because it is not a threat to people or property and it is not near harvestable timber, the fire is a low priority and has been monitored up to this point, Friesen said.

There have been 1,400 evacuations from the Island Lake region, including more than 400 people from St. Theresa Point, because of the threat posed by smoke in the area, from the local fire and smoke drifting in from fires outside the province.

Evacuations are ordered through federal health and aboriginal affairs officials in consultation with local leadership, said Daren Mini, executive director of the Manitoba Association of Native Fire Fighters. MANFF co-ordinates the evacuations, sending planes in and arranging with the province for hotel rooms.

There is another challenge now facing evacuation officials: A looming shortage of hotel rooms in Winnipeg and Brandon to accommodate the sick, the elderly and people with health issues.

Oji-Cree residents are upset because up till now the province had put no resources into fighting the fire, Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak Grand Chief David Harper said following the provincial briefing.

The issue isn’t evacuations, he said. It’s a dispute over who’s responsible for fighting forest fires. First Nations have pressed both levels of government to fund them to fight fires they see as dangerous but two decades of talks have gone nowhere.

The province’s decision to start fighting the St. Theresa fire happened after he and northern chiefs met with federal officials to ask them to get the province to help, Harper said.

The issue of who fights forest fires is an old dispute that keeps coming up, he said.

"Same thing, same scenario as ’89," Harper said.

In 1989, one of the worst years for forest fires in the north, chiefs from St. Theresa Point and Bunibonibee Cree Nation in Oxford House found themselves asking why fires weren’t stopped before evacuations became necessary, Harper said.

The meeting Wednesday also included leaders from both First Nations, in a replay of history northern chiefs would rather solve for good.

"What Conservation is saying to the First Nations is these fires are an Act of God. When you see fires going out of control, that’s not an excuse for First Nations." Harper said. "What the community is saying is this fire could have been avoided. And if it had been dealt with, we wouldn’t have all these evacuations."