'Fending for ourselves' after Manitoba wildfire forces evacuation: O-Pipon-Na-Piwin leaders

Leaders from a northern Manitoba First Nation under a wildfire-related state of emergency that's forced residents to evacuate are raising concerns about the provincial response to that threat.

'Fending for ourselves' after Manitoba wildfire forces evacuation: O-Pipon-Na-Piwin leaders Community felt 'helpless' after ATV crash that killed essential worker last week, chief says Leaders from a northern Manitoba First Nation under a wildfire-related state of emergency that's forced residents to evacuate are raising concerns about the provincial response to that threat. O-Pipon-Na-Piwin Cree Nation Chief Shirley Ducharme said her community — where about 71 people remain, after the rest left for Winnipeg, Brandon or Thompson — feels it's been "left to manage the emergency with limited support and few answers."

"We continue to struggle," Ducharme said at a news conference Monday, where she and Vice-Chief Oliver Dysart called for a more proactive response to wildfire threats from the provincial government and Manitoba Hydro. "At times with our nation, we feel like we are fending for ourselves. We were doing all the legwork.

And it shouldn't be that way," Dysart said. Leaders in the community, which is about 775 kilometres north of Winnipeg and has an on-reserve population of more than 1,100, said they want to see better provincial response around things like providing generators and ensuring medical staff are available for essential workers who stay behind. That issue came up last week when a local essential worker died after an all-terrain vehicle crash.

Emergency supports did not arrive in time to save the woman after the "tragic" crash, "resulting in the loss of a beloved community member," said Ducharme. "Significant concerns remain regarding belated emergency response, lack of immediate assistance [and] absence of an effective emergency plan for incidents occurring during evacuation. We felt very helpless at the time," Ducharme said.

"[It's] very difficult for all the people that remain there to try and help our people and protect our community." Ducharme did not say whether it's believed the woman might have survived if emergency response had been faster, and declined to provide further details about her, citing the family's privacy. The community's leaders also called on Manitoba Hydro to take a more proactive approach to mitigate the effects of wildfires on power lines, through measures like brush management and infrastructure protection.

To date, Ducharme said fire near the community has burned at least 30 hydro poles, with assessment work started but no timeline provided for power restoration. This year's wildfire threat comes after a 2025 fire season that forced the community to evacuate half its residents, as power lines burned down and caused a lengthy outage. "Last time we stressed we should learn from this.

We had asked to do the mitigation. That did not happen. And again we are faced with no power," Ducharme said.

"Outages should not occur due to a lack of preparedness and mitigation efforts." The chief said in many ways, she feels her community is going through the same stressful situation it did last year. "We expect better.

We expect improvements," she said. "It's not acceptable." 'More to be done': Hydro A spokesperson for Lisa Naylor, the provincial cabinet minister responsible for the Manitoba Emergency Management Organization, said the province helped support O-Pipon-Na-Piwin's evacuation and continues to have "daily communication to ensure the co-ordination of resources to the community."

Manitoba Hydro has also sent staff to areas where the wildfires have receded to assess the damage and make critical infrastructure repairs, Naylor's spokesperson said. Manitoba Hydro spokesperson Peter Chura said in an emailed statement Monday the utility can't provide a power restoration timeline yet due to "ongoing fire danger" in affected areas of the line. Workers will still need to get in to inspect each pole to determine how long repairs will take, he said.

Some of the power line passes through difficult terrain, which requires specialized equipment to access the area and do detailed inspections. While Hydro is getting staff and equipment to do that, he said, wildfires and shifting winds are making the area unsafe. Chura said the Crown corporation has already built infrastructure to support a camp for restoration crews, and will "make every effort to restore power as soon as possible," while keeping employee safety its top priority.

He said Hydro has been protecting northern Manitoba infrastructure by wrapping thousands of wood poles in fire-resistant mesh and clearing vegetation from power lines — including in O-Pipon-Na-Piwin Cree Nation, where it wrapped more than 150 poles and where community members were hired to cut trees last year "where it was accessible and safe to do so." However, Chura said Hydro realizes "there is more to be done," and has plans in place to finish that work as soon as possible.