Cottage-lot draw postponed by government

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 19/11/2008 (6396 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Doer government has quietly postponed this year’s cottage-lot draw and the province’s cottagers’ association says testy relations with First Nations are to blame.

In past years, Manitoba Conservation has spent the summer marketing hundreds of new cottage lots on Crown land. Those lots were then sold off at a series of public draws that lasted much of the fall.

But for the first time in five years, there’s been no cottage-lot draw and the province won’t say why.

Dave Crabb, president of the Manitoba Association of Cottage Owners, said he’s baffled by the situation but has heard the province has run into problems with First Nations following last year’s blockade near the Hollow Water reserve.

The Crown land the province earmarked for the latest round of cottage developments has been pegged by First Nations as traditional or treaty land that shouldn’t be sold without consultation and revenue-sharing.

In the summer, the Doer government said it was forging ahead with an election promise to make 1,000 more lots available for sale to would-be cottagers. An announcement was expected in June with the draw to last into the fall, in keeping with the timeline that governed past draws.

But Manitoba Conservation Spokesman Paul White said the province is still working on the next draw. Asked what has caused the delay, White said the province is “continuing with the process.”

“There’s no real time frame for it,” he added.

Sagkeeng First Nation Chief Donavan Fontaine said his band asked the province in early summer to remove three proposed cottage lot developments that were slated to be included in this year’s draw. The developments were on or near the band’s traditional land, and the province agreed to withdraw them.

And he said the province has still not reached a final deal with nearby Hollow Water First Nation on a revenue-sharing arrangement for the cottage development that sparked last year’s blockade.

The province wanted to develop a series of cottage lots on Lake Winnipeg just northwest of Manigotagan and added them to the annual draw in the summer of 2007. But band members from Hollow Water, already frustrated by private cottage incursions onto their traditional land, staged a blockade on a provincial highway that lasted for nearly two months.

The blockade forced the province to suspend most of the cottage lot draw on the east side of the province.

maryagnes.welch@freepress.mb.ca