PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Neptune's Michelle Vandal holds a tray of whitefish, one of the species low in mercury.

Eastern wilds land use report low on specifics
Final plan had been due last June

By Helen Fallding
helen.fallding@freepress.mb.ca

Monday, October 25, 2004 - Along-awaited report on the future of the wilderness east of Lake Winnipeg offers few specifics on what development will be allowed in an area covering one eighth of Manitoba's land mass.

Former Conservation Minister Oscar Lathlin launched the planning initiative more than four years ago and a final report was due last June.

But next week, East Side Planning Initiative chairman Phil Fontaine is expected to release only a "status report" that offers "a glimpse of what a fully functional broad-area plan may look like," according to the final draft obtained by the Free Press.

The report is a joint project of a stakeholder roundtable and a First Nation council studying the future of Lake Winnipeg's east side.

Forestry company Tembec, the mining industry, cottage developers, tourist operators and Manitoba Hydro have been participating in the process for years, putting projects on hold until a plan is in place.

"We're not even star-gazing because we don't know what part of the sky to look at," Tembec forester Vince Keenan said.

Tembec would like to open a sawmill in partnership with local First Nations when the lumber industry recovers from U.S. softwood duties. Hydro wants to run a new high voltage transmission line through the region.

But the status report submitted to Conservation Minister Stan Struthers calls for more planning exercises at the local and regional level before final recommendations are issued.

No timeline is given for completing the final plan.

In the meantime, the status report recommends partially lifting the moratorium on new projects and giving a First Nation Council interim authority to make recommendations on any major development.

The council would consist of 16 First Nation chiefs, one Métis representative and four others, ideally people who have already been involved in the planning round table. Members of First Nations make up 95 per cent of the people living on the east side of Lake Winnipeg.

Decisions of the council would be subject to a double majority -- a majority of council members and a majority of First Nation governments with traditional lands directly affected by the proposed activity.

The Promises to Keep report says the future land use plan could become a landmark in relations between governments and aboriginal people in Canada. Participants are trying to avoid repeating the mistakes of Northern Manitoba, where hydro development has left a legacy of bitterness.

On the east side of Lake Winnipeg, "the intrinsic value of the forest environment in 'just being there' will be weighted equally with the values our society places upon turning the forest into commodities," the report states.

It also highlights the economic value of the forest's carbon storage capacity for emission trading.

Keenan said it was probably unrealistic to think consultations with so many communities over such a vast territory could be completed in just a few years. But he is frustrated at how little progress has been made over the last few months.

The softwood lumber dispute with the U.S. is expected to be resolved next year -- long before a land use plan is likely to be finished.

The report recommends against a power corridor along the east side of the lake, unless long-term benefits to local residents can be proven. If accepted by government, that recommendation would force Manitoba Hydro to build a more expensive power line along a longer route west of the lake, cutting Hydro profits and potentially causing consumer rates to go up.

But a western hydro route would also give the wilderness area east of Lake Winnipeg a better chance of being declared a world heritage site.

The report calls for sacred sites to be protected without disclosing their exact location to the public.

It is supportive of expanding parks and of an all-weather road as far as Bloodvein or Berens River, as close as possible to the lake shore.

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