Members of Peguis First Nation continue to be displaced 2 years later

It’s been two years since the historic flood heavily damaged Peguis First Nation in Manitoba’s Interlake region and those who were forced to evacuate in 2022 are still living in hotels like the Mainstay Suites in Winnipeg and are still waiting to go home.

Christopher Sinclair reminisces on what life was like two years ago in Peguis. He was forced to leave everything he had behind and has been living in hotels in Winnipeg for the past two years.

“Our home was totally destroyed in the flood. We had a trailer and it moved, and shifted. It’s totally gone,” explained Christopher Sinclair, Peguis First Nation evacuee. “My home is in Peguis. I really want to get home.”

Sinclair has lived in five different hotels over the course of his stay in Winnipeg.

“It’s been really frustrating being in Winnipeg. Moving from hotel to hotel, was one of the biggest things. We have to move all of our stuff. I can’t even look at pictures. Here our food is given to us. It has been a really, really long road,” said Sinclair.

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Cheryl Thomson knows the feeling all too well.

“It’s the not knowing when we can return. I already understand that my house is not one of the houses that will not be fixed,” said Thomson.

Thomson says the infrastructure in Peguis, especially the housing, is really bad – and with nothing getting fixed, she doesn’t know if she’ll ever be able to return to the community.

“They say it’s the roads, but when you go to Peguis, the conditions of the roads are horrible. Hard to navigate. Where is the money going?”

Over 540 members are still unable to return to Peguis due to the flood in 2022 and 235 more have been displaced since flooding evacuations occurred in 2014 and 2017.

On Tuesday, Peguis Chief Dr. Stan Bird declared a state of emergency on behalf of the community, due to the ongoing health crisis. This comes a week after the community filed a $1 billion dollar flood damage lawsuit against the feds, province, and two rural communities.

“We need housing, number one. We need an adequate, permanent flood protection for the community, something that has been discussed through the generations, but there have never been any solutions implemented,” said Dr. Bird.