Premier Wab Kinew to visit Pimicikamak Cree Nation on Wednesday: MKO

Manitoba’s premier and other officials are scheduled to travel to Cross Lake/Pimicikamak Cree Nation on Wednesday to view the damage caused by a lengthy power outage.

Premier Wab Kinew will be joined by provincial and federal ministers, according to Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak (MKO).

Scheduled to travel to northern Manitoba are National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak, Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs (AMC) Grand Chief Kyra Wilson, MKO Grand Chief Garrison Settee, federal Minister of Northern and Arctic Affairs Rebecca Chartrand, and Indigenous Services Canada’s (ISC) Jennifer Wheatley.

“This visit is important as it will allow leadership to see conditions on the ground firsthand, discuss ongoing challenges, and work toward solutions alongside our Nation’s leadership,” said Chief David Monias in a Facebook post Monday.

A downed power line crossing the Nelson River was repaired on Thursday and power was restored to all customers in Pimicikamak by Friday afternoon.

About 1,300 customers were in the dark since Dec. 28, and Pimicikamak Cree Nation declared a state of emergency the following day. On New Year’s Eve, Chief Monias asked Prime Minister Mark Carney to deploy the Canadian Armed Forces to assist with the power outage.

Of the 1,355 houses in Cross Lake, Chief Monias said that over 200 houses were known to be damaged so far, but he added that a full assessment of damages is required. Monias said four houses were also lost to fires.

Monias has said water also seeped into the sockets of some homes, with at least four fires in the community so far since the outage. He said about 35 homes are now uninhabitable.

Water has had to be shut off at the youth centre, arena and one of the schools to prevent further damage.

“We don’t have enough people to actually go and fix the problems that are leaking right now,” Monias said. “So the best thing we can do is (turn) off the water in those areas and some of those neighbourhoods.”

He added the health centre is up and running on an emergency basis only due to limited access to water and a lack of resources.

Monias is urging governments to step up and help with restore the sewage and water plants immediately. The community has been relying on duct tape and plumber’s glue to fix some of the issues.

“We’re actually on life support,” he said.

No timeline for return

Chief Monias says the more than 4,000 people forced to leave the community are eager to go home after having to spend part of the holiday season in hotels in different parts of the province.

“They’re messaging me saying, ‘We want to go home, we are lonely for our home,'” he said in a phone interview Monday.

“Everybody is scattered everywhere from Thompson to Winnipeg.”

The frozen water system, as well as the pipes that have burst, has destroyed homes and affected the community’s infrastructure, he said, putting people’s well-being at risk.

This is the fourth time in five years residents have had to leave home because of wildfires and extreme weather, Monias added.

“It has been awful.”

He said some entertainment was hired for families at hotels to help them celebrate the new year.

“We were trying to get some kind of normalcy, I guess, to their lives again, but it’s hard to do in the hotel,” he said.

“We’re not OK at all, and people think that we are OK because we’re a big community, but a lot has been done to our infrastructure.”

–With files from The Canadian Press