Premier touts shared commitment for Trans-Canada twinning

Manitoba has pledged to work with Treaty 3 First Nations and recognize Anishinaabe law in the twinning of the Trans-Canada Highway.

Premier Wab Kinew and other members of cabinet travelled to Powwow Island on Lake of the Woods Tuesday to mark the occasion.

Following a ceremony at Wauzhushk Onigum Roundhouse, located about 220 kilometres east of Winnipeg, government leaders signed a memorandum of understanding with the Niiwin Wendaanimok Partnership.

The collective representing four First Nations located near the Manitoba-Ontario border — Wauzhushk Onigum, Washagamis Bay, Shoal Lake 40 and Niisaachewan — hailed the event as historic.

The agreement pertains to the widening of an approximately 16-kilometre section of the cross-country highway between the interprovincial crossing and Provincial Road 301 near Falcon Lake.

Tree-clearing and other preliminary work to establish a four-lane highway began more than two years ago under Manitoba’s former Progressive Conservative government.

The parties who met Tuesday agreed to work together throughout the planning and design stages of the Highway 1 project.

Kinew told reporters that he was pleased to kick things off “in a good way” by participating in ceremony and talking to Anishinaabe leaders in the region about their priorities.

“Everybody will benefit from (this work), when there’s a safer Trans-Canada from Winnipeg to Kenora,” the premier said.

Kinew was joined by Lisa Naylor, minister of transportation and infrastructure, and Indigenous Futures Minister Ian Bushie.

First Nations leaders recently offered them tobacco at the Manitoba legislature as a symbol of their desire to respect traditional protocols, the premier recalled. “We came here to honour that,” he said.

Niiwin Wendaanimok’s Natalie Daniels said it’s a major milestone that recognizes Anishinaabe laws and governance processes and “the importance of free, prior, and informed consent” in infrastructure development.

For Kinew, incorporating Manito Aki Inakonigaawin (the Great Earth Law) will involve considering the environment, economy, health and safety, and the principle of respect in practise.

He said the parties’ foundational agreement will prove especially helpful when it comes time to navigate twinning a complex section of roadway near Barren Lake. The existing westbound stretch crosses the lake at present.

The partners will need to pick a route that protects the waterway, Kinew said.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca