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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Stop the flooding
Successive governments have done little over the many years to mitigate the routine flooding of the Peguis First Nation each year, sometimes repeatedly in a wet summer. Now Vic Toews, Manitoba's senior federal minister, says he must find a suitable funding program to bring permanent relief because First Nations don't fit into the national Building Canada fund.
That's a shame, given the fund has a component earmarked for disaster mitigation in communities of fewer than 100,000 people. Peguis and, to a lesser degree Fisher River First Nation, both built on low-lying ground, regularly see dozens of houses flooded and people evacuated when the Fisher River rises in spring, or from overland flooding in torrential rains as has happened since June. Mr. Toews says there are better-suited funds for First Nations communities and promised to impress the urgency of the situation upon Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl.
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Roseau River First Nation, catastrophically flooded in 1997, was similarly vulnerable before a ring dike was built in 2004. It is not a cheap solution, still requiring evacuation when the dike is closed, but it is cheaper than moving the whole community.
Senior provincial and federal politicians have conceded that the regular flooding of Peguis is "unacceptable." A workable solution appears a pot of money away. Further delays are unreasonable. The rest of Canada is under construction, courtesy of recession-busting infrastructure funding. It is Peguis's turn, too.
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 7, 2010 A10
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