First Nation sends city bills for water use

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This article was published 11/01/2012 (5046 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A First Nation near the source of Winnipeg’s drinking water has sent the city an $8-million bill every month since October over Winnipeg’s plans to sell water-and-sewer services to other municipalities.

Iskatewisaagegan No. 39 First Nation is also threatening to take legal action against the city after learning about its plans to install water and sewer pipes in the RM of West St. Paul.

Band councillor Leon Mandamin said the Shoal Lake community has repeatedly asked the City of Winnipeg to negotiate a settlement over the lake’s water. The community of 300 on-reserve residents is located at the east end of Indian Bay, a section of Shoal Lake that straddles the Manitoba-Ontario border.

The Winnipeg Aqueduct intake structure is located at the west end of Shoal Lake by Shoal Lake No. 40, a separate First Nation.

However, Winnipeg water pipes pass through Iskatewisaagegan No. 39, and Mandamin said the First Nation never signed an agreement to give up its claim to the lake.

The First Nation’s lawyers sent a formal letter to the City of Winnipeg asking to negotiate a financial settlement in December after city council voted to give CAO Phil Sheegl the authority to finalize a plan to extend water and sewer pipes to West St. Paul.

Mandamin said the First Nation has sent the city an invoice for $8 million every month since October — the amount the First Nation calculates the city bills its residents for water usage every month. He said the city has not responded to the First Nation’s request to negotiate a settlement.

If the City of Winnipeg does not respond by Jan. 20, the band plans to file a court injunction to stop the city from selling its water-and-sewer services.

“We’re very open to discussions and that’s what negotiations are. But you can’t negotiate if the other party won’t come to the table,” Mandamin said.

City of Winnipeg spokeswoman Tammy Melesko said no one from the city will comment on the matter given the potential the issue could be before the courts in the near future.

Band consultant Mike Myers said Shoal Lake’s water level is kept artificially high with water from the Lake of the Woods watershed so Winnipeg can pump drinking water. As a result, he said, areas where fish spawned and wild rice was harvested have been destroyed. Myers said if the lake levels were not kept artificially high, the lake would be nearly empty within three months.

The city pumps about 52 million gallons of water from Shoal Lake every day, Myers said, and the lake’s capacity is 100 million gallons per day.

He said he suspects Winnipeg wants to capitalize on the additional capacity and sell it to make a profit.

Last fall, the First Nation warned it may block off Ash Rapids, a channel that connects Lake of the Woods to Shoal Lake. Shoal Lake No. 39 said the city has no right to sell water before it resolves decades’ worth of claims over lake water.

Mandamin said the federal government gave Shoal Lake No. 40 $1,500 in the early 1900s to give up its rights to the lake but his community never signed on to the deal.

Last fall, Mandamin said, the federal government offered the community $68,000 — what half the $1,500 would have been worth today — as compensation.

jen.skerritt@freepress.mb.ca