A First Nation is suing the Manitoba government over a dam built in 1942 that flooded hundreds of acres and turned much of the area into an “unusable muskeg.”
The lawsuit, filed Thursday in the Court of King’s Bench on behalf of Kinonjeoshtegon First Nation, claims the dam was built at the Jackhead River after an agreement between the federal and provincial governments and without consultation with the reserve.
The community is on the western shore of Lake Winnipeg, about 250 kilometres north of Winnipeg.
The lawsuit says its ability to use the land granted to it under Treaty 5 was hampered.
The band seeks general damages for the loss of land, harvesting rights, the destruction of hay and timber land, and remediation costs, as well as compensation, aggravated and punitive damages, court costs and interest. A dollar figure isn’t specified.
“The actions of Manitoba aforesaid provided no benefit to (the First Nation) and, to the contrary, have caused severe economic hardship,” reads the statement of claim.
“The flooding of the Jackhead River has caused it to alter its natural course and converted much of the reserves into unusable muskeg.”
Last year, the federal government reached an out-of-court settlement with Kinonjeoshtegon for $3,904,253. It sought compensation from Ottawa for flooding, as well as the use of logs from reserve land without consent to build the dam.
The lawsuit alleges the Manitoba government’s motive was to create and maintain high water levels on the river to benefit non-Indigenous tourism and recreation on nearby Lake St. George and Lake St. Andrews, where cottages were later sold. In 1974, Manitoba created two namesake provincial parks on the lakes.
The statement of claim alleges the two governments agreed in 1941 to engage in projects to increase the muskrat population in parts of Manitoba, including on traditional land granted to the First Nation under Treaty 5, signed in 1876, without consulting the band.
The First Nation has two sections of reserve, a larger portion near the lake shore and another slightly inland, which was granted to it early in the 20th century for hay land.
The province, it claimed, requested Ottawa transfer a portion of the band’s hay land to carry out a fur rehabilitation project by damming the Jackhead River to raise water levels, which it said would result in flooding in a small portion of the reserve. Ottawa granted an easement over a portion of the land meant to coincide with the term of the fur project.
By September 1941, the province began preparing to build the dam, including by harvesting logs on the reserve, without consent of the band. The federal government did not provide compensation for the easement nor did either government warn the First Nation about the impending damage to the land .
The dam was completed by Aug. 31, 1942, and flooded more than 600 acres of reserve land upstream. The suit says it destroyed hay fields, trap lines and hunting and fishing areas on reserve and traditional land. Downstream, the suit claims, water levels receded and destroyed fishing areas and navigable water.
Though the muskrat population in the area increased initially, it fell by 1947 due to the province’s failure to study the impact of the flooding on the habitat, the suit claims, but the two governments instead kept the dam operating under a series of different agreements over several decades.
The lawsuit claims the province has ignored repeated requests to remediate the consequences of the flooding and provide compensation.
The province said it hadn’t been formally served notice of the claim and hasn’t responded to the lawsuit in court.
erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca
Erik Pindera
Reporter
Erik Pindera is a reporter for the Free Press, mostly focusing on crime and justice. The born-and-bred Winnipegger attended Red River College Polytechnic, wrote for the community newspaper in Kenora, Ont. and reported on television and radio in Winnipeg before joining the Free Press in 2020. Read more about Erik.
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