Manitoba Chiefs asking for additional support for battling wildfires

That was MKO Grand Chief Garrison Settee Tuesday morning, echoing the sentiments of several First Nations in Manitoba, who are asking for additional equipment to help save their homes from the numerous wildfires threatening the province’s north. 

“They want to protect their communities, but they don’t have the equipment; they should have been provided that equipment, because they are saving lives, and who is withholding this equipment from them, that’s what I want to know this morning,” said Garrison Settee, the Grand Chief of Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak (MKO).

Chief Gordie Bear of Pukatawagan Cree Nation described an increasingly dire situation. 

“Hoses for our gardens, rakes for the lawns, nothing to fight fires with, nothing,” said Chief Bear.

As of Monday, the community had the use of just two fire trucks, three fire pumps, and 2,000 feet of hose, tasked with defending their homes from a blaze that has grown to over 10,000 hectares.

“We have root fire, we have fire hot spots coming out of places, two, three days later because we got no water, if we had water to douse these little hot flames out, we’d catch up to the fire,” said Chief Bear.

It’s a similar situation just south in Pimicikamak Cree Nation, where Chief David Monias said his community is relying on only one fire truck to defend their homes from a wildfire that now sits on the Nation’s doorstep. 

“We have one fire truck, that’s it for a community of 10 thousand people, it’s ridiculous,” said Monias.

“It’s like they are more worried about money than they are worried about saving lives, or saving our properties that we have worked so hard to build our community, and here we are fighting even to just get water bombers.”

Further relief, though, is on the way, as of Monday, fifty pumps, 1,500 hoses, and 500 sprinklers arrived in Manitoba according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre. 

And on Tuesday, Public Safety Minister Eleanor Olszemski said the Federal and Provincial governments will match donations to the Red Cross to support wildfire relief in Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

“Our leadership they are having to respond and be reactive to what is happening instead of being proactive,” said Kyra Wilson, the Grand Chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs.

Back in Winnipeg, Grand Chief Wilson said once their residents are safe, they will be requesting a sit-down with the federal government to discuss how they can prevent a similar tragedy from happening again.

“We will be sending a list to Canada about what we need for our nations, and my hope is we get the response we need,” said Grand Chief Wilson.