Mathias Colomb Cree Nation pleads for temporary generator to end evacuation

A Manitoba First Nation are demanding the government step in a provide a generator to allow their evacuated community members to return home.

The Chief of a Manitoba First Nation whose community has been evacuated for over a hundred days due to wildfire threat is pleading for generator funding to support the community’s plan to return home.

Mathias Colomb Cree Nation, also known as Pukatawagan, was placed under evacuation in late May due to a wildfire that threatened the community approximately 700 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg.

However, over three months later, many residents have yet to return to the community.

“We got to get home,” said Chief Gordie Bear of Mathias Colomb Cree Nation during a news conference on Friday. “Our children are suffering. We’re suffering … Comfort is not easy to find when you’re in a concrete jungle.”

Bear said fire damage has left the community without power and is asking for $8 million for a temporary generator system to expedite the return home while Manitoba Hydro continues to work on restoring full power.

However, Bear said neither the federal government nor the provincial government has committed to funding the temporary power source.

In a letter to Bear signed by Mandy Gull-Masty, Minister of Indigenous Services, and shared with CTV News, Gull-Masty said the funding should come from Manitoba Hydro.

“The introduction of an alternative power source to alleviate the extended outages being experienced by Mathias Colomb is fundamentally a Manitoba Hydro responsibility,” reads the letter in part, dated Sept. 4.

While a Manitoba Hydro spokesperson said work is ongoing to repair 253 damaged utility poles in the community and along two transmission lines, the spokesperson said “our efforts right now are best focused on repairing damage and restoring power.”

The Crown corporation said it is working on having partial power to support critical infrastructure in the community by Sept. 11 and intends to have full power restored by the week of Sept. 28.

“Much of the work is in remote areas and difficult terrain where helicopters are required to move crews and material, and holes must be bored in rock to set new poles,” Manitoba Hydro said. As of Friday, 155 of the damaged poles have been repaired.

On Friday, Finance Minister Adrien Sala and the minister responsible for Manitoba Hydro said the province directed the Crown corporation to hire a consultant to look at generator options.

“Right now, we’re focused on making sure that that line gets repaired as quickly as we can,” Sala said. “We’re looking at other long-term solutions as well.”

In a statement from Indigenous Services Canada, the department said it is “engaging with First Nations and Manitoba to address these types of situations, particularly through the development of multilateral emergency management service agreements.”

Bear said about 2,200 members from the community are still residing elsewhere, including in Winnipeg, The Pas, Brandon and Niagara Falls, Ont.

Glenn Dumas, Mathias Colomb Cree Nation’s fire chief, said the government has spent over $160 million to take care of evacuees, a “big difference” from the $8 million needed for the generator system.

“Politics has no business in emergency management,” Dumas said. “I find myself losing a battle because of Hydro and the governments not willing to work together to help ease the suffering and the pain.”

Grand Chief Garrison Settee of Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak said people are dying away from their traditional homelands and cannot be put to rest in a way that is culturally appropriate around family.

“They cry out, they ask for help, but nothing has happened. Nothing has changed. It’s a shame,” Settee said.