Premier pushes for outlet channel

ST. LAURENT — Premier Brian Pallister wants the federal government to fast-track environmental approval for a new outlet channel to prevent future flooding around Lake Manitoba.

Pallister has written to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, asking Ottawa to designate the outlet as an emergency construction project.

Speaking to a community meeting in St. Laurent (90 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg), Pallister said Monday he said he will travel to the nation’s capital in 10 days time to make his case. He told the crowd of about 200 the flood-control measure should have been undertaken decades ago.

In 2011, a devastating flood displaced whole communities, swamped farmland, ruined cottages and businesses and cost governments hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation payments. It also sparked a renewed commitment to build outlet channels for Lake Manitoba and Lake St. Martin. Considerable planning has already been done on the two outlets, which will cost an estimated $540 million.

'It's time for governments to get their act together and it's time to get this thing built'— Premier Brian Pallister on a proposed outlet channel 

"It’s time for governments to get their act together and it’s time to get this thing built," Pallister told the meeting, organized by local Progressive Conservative MLA Derek Johnson and attended by eight members of the PC caucus.

Pallister noted a contract already has been announced for the construction of an access road to a channel construction site. The province began consultations with Indigenous communities last year on the preferred routes for both lake channels.

"Dozens of meetings have been held; others will be held," the Manitoba premier said, adding he hoped the consultation process could wind up late this year, paving the way for construction to begin in 2019.

Pallister said he hopes the project can avoid a full-blown federal environmental review, similar to what Ottawa has ordered for the proposed Manitoba-Minnesota Transmission Project hydroelectric line.

"There is a federal environmental process that can be invoked. We don’t see the legitimacy of that," he told reporters. "But we respect the right of people to apply for that federal process."

On the weekend, Pallister promoted Monday’s meeting with a series of tweets from his official Twitter account. The tweets contained links to videos featuring individuals who had been impacted by the 2011 flood, and backed swift construction of the outlet channels.

A number of those who attended the meeting were adversely affected by the flood — or survived a close call — and demanded quick action on the large flood-prevention project. Others questioned the proposed route of the Lake Manitoba outlet and expressed concern their land would be expropriated.

"We need to get this done — the sooner the better," said Moosehorn cattle producer Ross Jermey, who attended the event with his wife, Helen.

They said the 2011 flood severely damaged a half-section of the couple’s hay land, and it remains unfarmable. It’s not worth their while to reclaim the land until there is adequate flood protection in place, Jermey said.

Dan Meisner, deputy reeve of the Rural Municipality of Grahamdale, was critical of the proposed route for the Lake Manitoba outlet channel. He called it "the Bipole III of water projects in Manitoba," because it’s twice as long as an alternate route he favours and affects more farmland. (Bipole III is a hydro transmission project under construction in Manitoba that will run almost 1,400 km in length.)

Meisner said his municipality will lose 3,000 acres of farmland and the $20,000 in tax revenue that go with it. He said the route he’s championing — while posing some engineering issues would cost about the same amount as the government’s preferred route and be built largely on Crown land. The government’s preferred route also involves moving a section of Highway 239, he said.

A provincial government spokesman declined to share Pallister’s letter to the prime minister with the Free Press.

The office of federal Infrastructure Minister Amarjeet Sohi said Monday it was reviewing the province’s application for federal funds to build the outlets.

"This is an important project to our government, which we made clear through its inclusion in Budget 2016," spokesman Brook Simpson wrote. "We understand how vital this project is to Manitobans and look forward to having more to say on its funding source and timing soon."

— with files from Dylan Robertson

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca