Wildfire evacuees demand province declare state of emergency

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This article was published 07/09/2017 (2963 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

More than 1,000 wildfire evacuees took part in a protest march through the North End and downtown to the legislature Thursday.

The event is the first to follow on warnings yesterday from First Nation leaders who protested conditions for evacuees in Winnipeg and Brandon.

It begins at one of the Canadian Red Cross shelters operated for evacuees at finishes at the legislature because the province is the growing focus of demands to call a state of emergency.

Such a declaration would allow the province the authority to open up hotel rooms for evacuees, their leaders say.

Wildfires in the Island Lake region, a remote area in northeastern Manitoba, some 600 kilometres from Winnipeg, forced the evacuation from three sister First Nations, Wasagamack, St. Theresa Point and Garden Hill, in the last week of August.

The event was organized by Garden Hill evacuees and will see families march from the WSF Soccer Complex on Leila Avenue through the North End and winding its way downtown to the legislature.

The rally there is expected to started with speeches just before noon.

Details on the route the protest will take were not released with word of the march.

Some 5,000 evacuees were forced out of their homes in northern Manitoba by wildfires 11 days ago. They’ve been under the care of the Canadian Red Cross Society, which opened two shelters to accommodate families when neither Winnipeg or Brandon could supply enough hotel rooms.

Today the Red Cross is closing one shelter, the RBC Convention Centre, as hotel rooms become available. The other one, on Leila, is staying open for now.

alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca