Reserve files suit over logging in western Manitoba

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This article was published 23/02/2022 (1325 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A second Manitoba First Nation is taking the province and lumber giant Louisiana-Pacific Canada Ltd. to court over commercial logging activity in western Manitoba.

Wuskwi Sipihk First Nation filed a lawsuit Wednesday that seeks a moratorium on all logging and forestry development activities in Porcupine Mountain Provincial Forest and Kettle Hills, and an order that the province complete “a process of meaningful consultation” with the First Nation before it can resume.

Wuskwi Sipihk First Nation’s two reserves are located north of Birch River and along the western shore of Swan Lake.

The province extended its licence agreement with Louisiana-Pacific in December, allowing it to build more roads, harvest more timber “and further erode the rights” of its members,” the first nation said in a news release Wednesday.

“In 2011, the Manitoba government instituted a ban on moose hunting in Porcupine Mountain and Kettle Hills,” Chief Elwood Zastre said in the news release.

“This has had a direct and devastating impact on our people. Manitoba acknowledges that human activities, including resource development, is a main reason our moose populations declined. The ban remains in effect today, and we are unable to exercise our right to hunt moose in and around Porcupine Mountain and Kettle Hills as a result.”

In January, Pine Creek First Nation filed court action against the province in a bid to halt commercial logging in Duck Mountain Provincial Park.

The First Nation alleges the province failed in its duty to “consult and accommodate” it before extending the term of Louisiana-Pacific’s forest management licence agreement.