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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Barren Lands wins decades-long battle

SaskPower dam flooded First Nation

By: Kevin Rollason

Posted: 10/26/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

THE federal government has offered financial compensation to a Manitoba First Nation almost seven decades after a dam built in Saskatchewan changed residents' way of life.

Patricia Valladao, a spokeswoman for the federal Indian and Northern Affairs department, confirmed Ottawa has made a formal financial settlement offer to the Barren Lands First Nation.

"The settlement offer is financial," said Valladao. "There is no land component to the settlement. It is financial only."

Valladao said the settlement offer is confidential.

She said the next step is in the hands of the Barren Lands chief and band council.

"The First Nation now is completing an internal consultation with its members," Valladao said. "We are just waiting for a formal response."

The band's chief could not be reached for comment.

But a recent advertisement in the Free Press states the band will hold an information meeting about the flooding settlement proposal in Brochet Wednesday.

Barren Lands, with a population of about 878 residents, is one of the province's most northerly reserves. It is located about 1,200 kilometres north of Winnipeg and about 20 kilometres east of the Saskatchewan border on the north shore of Reindeer Lake.

Jeff Harris, the band's lawyer, said he couldn't divulge details of the settlement offer.

But Harris said the dispute originates with the construction of the Whitesand Dam in 1942, and the decades of changing water levels on Reindeer Lake.

"The allegation is the federal government failed to protect the interests of the First Nation by allowing the Churchill River Power Company to flood reserve land without doing anything to protect their interests or negotiate compensation," the lawyer said.

The Churchill River Power Company was a subsidiary of Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting Co., in Flin Flon.

The dam is now operated by SaskPower.

Harris said Reindeer Lake is now used as a reservoir by SaskPower with water held back by the dam in summer to be used for power generation through the winter months.

"They used to trap muskrats, but the flooding impacted their muskrat trapping," he said.

"It impacted the fish habitat on the lake. It even caused the community to be divided geographically -- the water was so high one section was cut off -- but a new road connected it again.

"Even graves have been washed away."

Harris said any settlement would be paid to the First Nation and not individual members.

"It would go to the chief and council or a trust which would be managed to the benefit of the First Nation," he said.

SaskPower could not be reached for comment.

It's not the only dispute by aboriginal people on the lake.

On the Saskatchewan side of the lake, the Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation is also fighting for flood compensation because of another dam.

That band has been trying to get compensation from SaskPower since the late 1980s, but finally launched a lawsuit in 2005.

The band is suing SaskPower, and both the federal and provincial governments for the damage caused by the Island Falls dam. That dam was constructed in 1929.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition October 26, 2009 A5

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