Premier says 1,000 more hotel rooms to open for evacuees By: Tyler Searle Posted: 2:42 PM CDT Monday, Jun. 2, 2025 Last Modified: 9:58 PM CDT Monday, Jun. 2, 2025 Updates

The Manitoba government said it is scrambling to book more accommodation for thousands of fire evacuees after Indigenous leaders raised concern about people having to sleep in arenas and other uncomfortable congregate settings.

“Nobody wants to sleep on a cot for more than a day or two, even in an emergency situation,” Kinew told a news conference in Saskatoon ahead of the first ministers meeting Monday.

“So we’re connecting folks who need those enhanced accessibility supports first, and then broadening it out to everybody else who needs help, too.”

“I ask all levels of government, please come together, work together, ask that these hotels and these accommodations make space for our people.”–AMC Grand Chief Kyra Wilson

First Nations leaders requested more hotels open their doors to evacuees.

Kinew said space is tight in communities across southern Manitoba because 17,000 people have fled fires in the north, prompting Manitoba to issue a state of emergency.

Infrastructure Minister Lisa Naylor said late Monday the priority was to evacuate people from life-threatening situations, get them out of the fire zones and into congregate settings.

Now, work is ramping up to get them into hotel rooms, Naylor said.

“Manitoba is doing this work now — actively booking hotel rooms for evacuees and assessing the system for opportunities to create more vacancies immediately.

“It’s important to note Manitoba, via the Canadian Red Cross, has been booking hotel rooms for evacuees based on priority levels (accessibility, medical needs, other specialized needs) since evacuation notices were implemented,” she said.

More than 1,100 rooms have been booked to date, some of which are in Ontario. An additional 125 have been put on hold to get evacuees into them.

“Manitoba is anticipating hundreds more hotel rooms to become available over the coming days and is working to book these rooms for evacuees,” the minister said.

The province is working with the Manitoba Hotel Association on upcoming vacancies and whether the high demand can be met.

The City of Winnipeg and other communities, including Thompson, Portage la Prairie and Winkler, have established emergency shelters in arenas.

The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs has called for all levels of government to issue a directive to Manitoba hotels and force them to open space for displaced community members.

“I ask all levels of government, please come together, work together, ask that these hotels and these accommodations make space for our people,” said Grand Chief Kyra Wilson. “We are in a state of emergency, you can give that directive.”

Ontario has made several thousand hotel rooms available to evacuees, the premier said.

Some residents from Pimicikamak Cree Nation, also known as Cross Lake, were flown to Ontario to stay in a Niagara Falls hotel.

Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak Grand Chief Garrison Settee said Monday another 600 evacuees would be flown to Hamilton and the Niagara region.

Settee claimed some hotels are not working with the Red Cross, but didn’t provide examples.

“I think it’s a situation where they will take in people who have their own money,” he said, adding conferences booked at hotels should be cancelled or postponed.

“We’re finding shelter for everybody who needs it.”–Premier Wab Kinew

Efforts to get First Nations evacuees out of Manitoba are being spearheaded by Xpera, a firm offering various security and evacuation support services. Settee said the company is handling buses, flights and hotel accommodations.

Robert Garland from Xpera said about 226 evacuees had arrived and planes carrying more were to land late Monday. He said the company could find accommodations for 3,000, but that number could change depending on the fire situation.

“The hotel groups down here are definitely looking forward to pitching in and showing our friends from Manitoba the hospitality… that Niagara has to offer,” Garland said.

Naylor said the government is aware other hotel accommodations have been booked outside of the centralized process.

“It’s really sad to see our children having to sleep on floors. People are sitting, waiting in hallways, waiting outside and right now we just need everyone to come together. Our people are tired,” she said.

Officials from the Manitoba Court of King’s Bench and the Saskatchewan Court of King’s Bench issued a statement Sunday announcing a joint education session scheduled in Winnipeg this week would be cancelled due to “the pressing need to make hotel spaces.”

The hotel association declined to do an interview Monday.

“I know people are doing their best. As an association, we don’t have a tool or method to capture real-time or live inventory of rooms,” president and CEO Michael Juce said in an email.

Ravi Ramberran, owner of Four Crowns Restaurant and Hotel on McPhillips Street, said he reached out to the Canadian Red Cross Monday after fielding several calls from people requesting to stay at his hotel.

The Red Cross told him he needed to complete some paperwork in order to be reimbursed for offering aid to evacuees, Ramberran said.

He completed the documents, and hopes to have up to five rooms available for evacuees as early as Tuesday, he said.

In Winnipeg, the Red Cross is operating a reception centre at Billy Mosienko Arena in Tyndall Park, and has asked all evacuees who have nowhere to stay to go there.

Mayor Scott Gillingham said Monday Seven Oaks Arena in Garden City is being considered as another emergency shelter. Emergency supports are already operating from the Mosienko Arena, Century Arena in Fort Garry and Eric Coy Arena in Charleswood, and the Winnipeg Soccer Federation North complex. Recreational programming at involved facilities has been paused, he said.

Gillingham toured the city’s various evacuation centres over the weekend. His government is being guided by the province and the Red Cross to provide support, he told reporters during a news conference Monday.

Century Arena was at capacity with about 250 people when Gillingham visited Saturday. Meanwhile, the soccer complex was nearing capacity, with just over 1,000 people. As of Sunday, nobody had yet moved into Eric Coy, but that could change, Gillingham said.

Some First Nations communities have been calling the city directly for information and support, but their questions are best directed to the province, the mayor said.

“People are looking for answers and resources in real time. It’s a complex process, it’s a complex evacuation that’s being delivered, so we are just trying to make sure we don’t duplicate things.”

Winnipeg Centre MP Leah Gazan said the mass evacuations have highlighted shortcomings in the federal government’s emergency response protocols, and its ability to quickly accommodate evacuees.

“There needs to be… a concerted investment in planning for these crises that have become the new normal,” she told the Free Press Monday.

The Speaker of the House of Commons approved a request from Gazan to host an emergency debate on the issue Tuesday.

Indigenous Services Canada offers advance payments to eligible First Nations, enabling them to respond to immediate needs without waiting for reimbursement, spokesperson Eric Head said in an email statement.

As of Monday, the federal government had provided more than $2.4 million to First Nations across Canada to support wildfire evacuations, Head said.

More than 14,000 Indigenous people have been affected by wildfire evacuations in Canada this year, he said.

—With files from the Canadian Press

tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca

Tyler Searle
Reporter

Tyler Searle is a multimedia producer who writes for the Free Press’s city desk. A graduate of Red River College Polytechnic’s creative communications program, he wrote for the Stonewall Teulon Tribune, Selkirk Record and Express Weekly News before joining the paper in 2022. Read more about Tyler.

Every piece of reporting Tyler produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.