Time for long overdue justice

Opinion

It was with interest that myself and others from Fox Lake Cree Nation read the recent opinion piece written by Jerry Storie, former minister responsible for Manitoba Hydro, on Oct. 6, The case for restarting the Conawapa hydro project.

In it, Storie calls for immediate action to proceed with the construction of the Conawapa Generating Station, citing that the project could advance Manitoba’s clean energy goals with minimal impact to the environment. At one point he says, “there are no communities near the dam site,” and that all the damage “has been done” and “paid for.”

Storie’s opinion seems to be that there are already four large dams on the Nelson River, what’s one more?

Fox Lake Cree Nation begs to differ.

The proposed Conawapa site is in the heart of our territory.

We launch our boats nearby, and our members frequent these lands and waters for harvesting, ceremonial activities, and the exercising of our inherent rights.

One only needs to see the difference in water levels on one side of the Limestone Generating Station to the other to realize how another proposed dam is going to significantly change the landscape and our territory, not to mention the record low years of water that have stranded our friends and neighbours in York Factory and made navigating the Nelson River more difficult than ever.

Fox Lake Cree Nation has inhabited our lands and territories for millenia. Recognized as a band in 1947, we were promised a homeland in accordance with our treaty.

Yet in 2025, over 75 years later, we remain without a suitable land base for our people. This is because before being granted our rightful reserve land under treaty, Canada instead gave the land to Manitoba for hydro development.

To this day, the majority of our homeland falls under the Local Government District of Gillam, an area four times the size of Winnipeg, while our land is limited to a small 100-acre parcel of reserve at Bird created in 1985, where some of our people fled when the development of hydro and the camps at Gillam became unbearable.

Starting in the 1960s, thousands of workers came here to build the Kettle, Longspruce, and Limestone dams, the Henday and Radisson converter stations, Bipoles I and II, and hundreds of kilometres of transmission infrastructure.

To make way for the Town of Gillam, our homes were bulldozed in front of our eyes, often with our belongings still in them. Our gravesites were dug up and moved. We were suddenly squatters in our own territory.

Fox Lake Cree Nation continues to fight tirelessly to right these wrongs.

Storie points out that “Manitoba Hydro has already paid hundreds of millions in compensation for those decisions.” Fox Lake Cree Nation has one relatively small agreement with Manitoba and Manitoba Hydro for their role in what happened to us, but we were never signatory to the Northern Flood Agreement, where Canada, Manitoba, and Manitoba Hydro compensated First Nations for the destruction of their lands.

Canada has still not settled with Fox Lake for their role in giving our land away to hydro development, although we sit at a negotiating table to this day to settle these outstanding claims.

Fox Lake Cree Nation is not opposed to the potential construction of Conawapa.

While we can’t forget the harms of the past and will not compromise the health of our environment, Fox Lake Cree Nation remains open to opportunity.

Any potential development in our territory must include the meaningful participation of Fox Lake Cree Nation. Building on the partnership that completed the Keeyask Generating Station, we continue to ensure that projects provide lasting benefits in the form of impact benefit agreements, direct negotiated contracts, and joint-venture opportunities. These have resulted in training, jobs, and own-source revenue for our nation.

The construction of Keeyask wasn’t perfect and should Manitoba look to proceed with the development of Conawapa, it needs to ensure that we learn from those lessons, fix the wrongs of the past in a meaningful way, and move forward in true partnership. Because there is a resilient community here, one that always has been here and always will be here.

We will never again be forgotten or brushed aside, so let’s make sure any future discussions of building Conawapa also includes long overdue justice for Fox Lake Cree Nation — or Conawapa will never get built.

Morris Beardy is Okimakan (chief) of the Fox Lake Cree Nation.