MMF command centre gives evacuees ‘retail therapy’ Donations line walls of McGregor Street building, where people can grab essentials, get online and eat a hot meal By: Malak Abas Posted: 5:47 PM CDT Friday, Jun. 6, 2025

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This article was published 06/06/2025 (485 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A tired-looking man walked into the Manitoba Métis Federation’s makeshift command centre for people displaced by wildfires with a simple request Friday afternoon.

“I just want to get settled in,” he told a group of volunteers that gathered around him at the building’s entrance.

The man arrived in Winnipeg earlier that day, one of more than 18,000 Manitobans who have had to flee their homes due to out-of-control wildfires across portions of the province. He knows he needs toiletries, and would appreciate a snack, but isn’t sure what else he might need.

A volunteer gestured toward the wall-to-wall piles of organized donations.

“Let’s get you some retail therapy.”

The building, at 406 McGregor St., thrums with activity. Thousands of donations fill every room and line the walls — food, drinks, stacks of folded clothes, books, baby formula, children’s activities and hygiene products.

In the back are some of the most hotly requested items: wheelchairs, walkers, baby chairs, strollers — assistive supports that people were forced to leave behind in the rush to get to safety.

Volunteers of all ages run from room to room, helping visitors and organizing donations.

In the front of the building, more immediate needs are met. Computers with Wi-Fi are arranged on a table for people to get online, a kids movie is projected on a rare empty wall, and colouring pages and toys are strewn about. Individual Saran-wrapped pieces of bannock with jam are popular with people walking in.

The doors are open for any evacuee who needs it, Red River Métis or otherwise, and MMF-sponsored buses pick up people staying in hotels who may be short on essentials, or for those just looking for something to do.

They’re encouraged to take their time and browse — volunteers and organizers describe it as shopping, and a break from the emergency that’s defined their lives for the last while.

“It’s a little bit of normalcy, and it’s a little bit of something that’s pleasant and good and gives them some choices, in a world where they haven’t had a ton of choices,” said MMF spokesperson Kat Patenaude, who has also taken on a liaison role in wildfire support evacuee efforts.

Mandatory evacuation orders are in place for at least 27 communities in Manitoba. While some are staying with family or friends, others are in hotel rooms or staying on cots in evacuee shelters.

Patenaude says hundreds of evacuees have passed through the doors in the weeks since the wildfires first broke out.

When it became clear the MMF wouldn’t have trouble soliciting donations or ensuring the needs of their membership were met, they began to strategize on how best to ensure people were getting the highest standard of care they could, with an Indigenous-led focus, said Stephanie Meilleur, the MMF’s community resources department director.

On the ground, it presents itself in different ways, she said: products for elders, mothers and infants stacked high, and hot cooked meals in the evenings consisting of staples like corn, fish, fry bread and soups — what someone visiting might have eaten at home.

“Evacuees are sitting in congregate shelters in other areas, and they’re being fed pizza and Subway and foods that they are not used to, and they are looking for that Indigenous warm meal, and we are happy to provide those meals at supper time every night here,” she said.

There are still a few high-demand products the centre seeks, namely baby formula, suitcases and luggage, strollers, and grocery carts. Meilleur said that evacuations, and the wildfires themselves, remain unpredictable, and they’re taking the level of need day-by-day.

“We are setting ourselves up to potentially be doing this long term. No one knows anything,” she said.

Meanwhile, at Red River College Polytech, therapy dogs were brought in Friday — but not for stressed-out students.

More than 100 evacuees were set to arrive at RRC Polytech’s Notre Dame campus Friday, where a temporary shelter with 180 cots has been set up in the North Gym.

The college has brought in counselors, and is making use of the educational tools at their disposal by offering tutoring services and programming for school-age evacuees.

“We’re stepping up for whatever it is that the the evacuees need, we’re going to be able to figure out a way to help them,” spokesperson Jodi Pluchinski said.

Other shelters, like the one set up in Winkler’s Meridian Exhibition Centre, are waiting on standby.

Winkler Mayor Henry Siemens said the entire city leapt to action when the province said evacuees could be sent their way. Within 24 hours, the building was filled with cots and basic supplies. Local businesses, religious organizations, and the neighbouring city of Morden reached out to ask how they could help.

“We mobilized extremely quickly,” Siemens said.

Despite around 800 Manitoba evacuees having been sent to hotels in Ontario, Winkler’s shelter remains empty. Siemens said around 40 evacuees are staying in hotels in the city.

He knows that could change at a moment’s notice, and said Winkler’s emergency response team is on high alert.

“At this time, our facility is fully ready,” he said.

“We have everything in place.”

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca