Clear Lake group withdraws review against Parks Canada

BRANDON — Fairness for Clear Lake has decided to withdraw its judicial review against Parks Canada following a court delay that pushed the 2025 boat ban hearing to May.

The advocacy group said last week there are several reasons for the decision. The turning point was when members learned a judge would likely decline to hear the case owing to its late timing, spokesperson Trevor Boquist said.

A delay in the court system pushed the group’s hearing from Jan. 28 to May 21.

“By the time we would be actually getting in front of a judge, the judge would probably not even hear the case, because a boating decision for 2026 will have been made by then,” Boquist said.

“(Our lawyer) didn’t think that the courts would even hear the case once a decision had been made.”

Parks Canada posted a notice on its website in December saying it expected to make a decision about 2026 boating on Clear Lake in Riding Mountain National Park before the end of this month. The agency did not provide a comment before deadline on Friday.

In 2023, Parks Canada instituted a “one boat, one lake” policy following the discovery of invasive and destructive zebra mussels. In 2024, all boats were banned except for the Martese tour boat. In 2025, it too was banned from the water.

Fairness for Clear Lake members met on Monday and decided to withdraw, Boquist said. The judicial review would have been costly to continue and a significant improvement in leadership has taken place with the appointment of park superintendent Tom Sheldon, he said.

“We wanted to make sure that we kept that relationship because of what he’s doing,” Boquist said. “We think all that’s positive… and we’re really down to a final decision, around boating for 2026.”

Fairness for Clear Lake was formed last summer by community members and businesses to protest against Parks Canada’s decision to ban motorized vessels from the lake for the 2025 season.

The group launched a judicial review last June, hired a public relations firm and lobbied for the policy to change.

Boquist said that while the judicial review never made it to a final hearing, the process of filing the court challenge accomplished many goals.

“We highlighted a problem within Parks Canada: a lack of accountability, lack of transparency, lack of having qualified people in key positions that are affecting people’s lives.

“By getting all that out, putting all that pressure on, I mean, we ended up with a new superintendent, Tom Sheldon, who we believe is doing an exceptional job in the role.”

Fairness for Clear Lake is focused on advocacy and lobbying as much as possible to have its preferred “one boat, one lake” policy brought back for 2026, he said. The group is writing letters to Julie Dabrusin, the federal minister in charge of Parks Canada, as well as to Manitoba MPs and MLAs, and is engaging with Premier Wab Kinew in the weeks leading up to the expected boating announcement for 2026, Boquist said.

In 2024, Kinew came out saying that boats should be allowed to operate on the lake. The premier was not available for a comment Friday, but a spokesperson said Kinew’s position has not changed.

— Brandon Sun