Manitoba designates island 93rd provincial park

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This article was published 25/07/2023 (835 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba has added Pemmican Island to its menu of provincial parks.

The 67-acre island, located on the north basin of Lake Winnipegosis, 125 kilometres north of Dauphin, “is especially important for water birds and bird life in the area. It’s also a place of cultural significance for the regional First Nations,” said Rob Thiessen, director of the Manitoba chapter of Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society.

On Tuesday, it was designated Manitoba’s 93rd provincial park.

The announcement followed the conclusion of a 45-day consultation period, in which the government met with 426 stakeholders (individual members of the public, First Nations such as Sapotaweyak and Chemawawin, and organizations such as CPAWS).

Minister of Natural Resources and Northern Development Greg Nesbitt said 96 per cent of participants were in favour of declaring the island a provincial park, which he took as an enthusiastic endorsement of the plan.

Among them was CPAWS Manitoba, which actively worked to promote the designation, Thiessen said.

“We alerted Manitobans to the consultation period and invited them to send in their comments to the government in support,” he said. “We also worked with Chief Nelson Genaille of Sapotaweyak Cree Nation to ensure that that was something his First Nation wanted.”

Pemmican Island is now defended from any industrial development that has a commercial purpose (such as logging and mining). This will protect the native fauna and flora, especially the waterfowl whose migration patterns might be disrupted if the island were to be developed, Thiessen said.

Exploration for mineral development had been allowed on the island 2016-22, Nesbitt said.

“Natural resources are certainly important, and the mining companies had their opportunity to do exploration,” the Tory MLA said, “but we need to protect areas like this when and as much as we can.”

Waterfowl native to the island are colonial nesting birds the American white pelican, herring gull, ring-billed gull, Caspian tern, common merganser and the double-breasted cormorant (a protected species under the provincial Wildlife Act).

In addition, the island is home to a variety of tree species, such as American elm, Manitoba maple, and trembling aspen.

Nesbitt said Manitoba now leads both Saskatchewan (9.8 per cent) and Ontario (10.9 per cent) in the proportion of provincial land that is protected for ecological reasons, at 11.1 per cent.

The federal government’s goal is to have 30 per cent of Canada’s land and water protected by 2030.

“Manitobans will now be able to visit the island and enjoy it, realizing that it will remain natural,” Thiessen said.

graham.mcdonald@freepress.mb.ca