First Nation, province spar over gas bar access

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This article was published 30/09/2022 (1200 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Waywayseecappo First Nation’s gas bar in the RM of Elton frequently offers cheap gas, stirring up long lines of traffic in the surrounding area.

So long, in fact, that it has become a point of contention between the nation and the provincial government.

On Monday, the Sun received a package of documents showing a lengthy dispute between the province and Waywayseecappo about highway access to the gas bar.

The package, which was sent to the Sun by an anonymous source, contains several copies of internal ministerial briefings and correspondence between cabinet ministers, Manitoba Infrastructure officials and Waywayseecappo about the creation of an alternate access to the property, which lies just north of the Trans-Canada Highway and south of Brandon Municipal Airport.

When Waywayseecappo was looking to establish the gas bar in 2018 on land that has since become an urban reserve, Manitoba Infrastructure provided a sketch plan that showed access to the gas bar property via a service route connected to the road that leads to the airport. Access via Highway 10 was to be closed once the gas bar was built.

In the minutes for a meeting between Waywayseecappo and the province on Jan. 18, 2018, the First Nation told the province it did not require a service road in front of their parcel of land at all, and two years later that access road washed away.

Originally, the road ran between Sandison Road, which leads to the airport, and the property, but it was washed out in heavy rains at the end of June and beginning of July 2020. Since then, the property has only been accessible to vehicles via Highway 10.

According to multiple documents, Manitoba Infrastructure offered to pay for the design and construction of a new service road, but the First Nation wasn’t interested.

“Waywayseecappo First Nation has undertaken no work to repair the access road since the rain event in 2020,” a briefing document dated April 29, 2022 reads.

In January 2020, a briefing note prepared for the minister of infrastructure stated that Waywayseecappo requested a turning lane be installed to allow traffic to turn off from Highway 10, to the gas bar. The First Nation also asked that the speed limit be reduced near the turning lane.

However, that same briefing note shows the department had a different plan: “The current access to the property will be removed after a service road is constructed to give access to the property. This access must be removed before any business can open on the site.” However, that was delayed due to the flood.

In January 2022, then minister of infrastructure Reg Helwer sent a letter to two councillors at the RM of Elton apparently in response to a letter they had sent him regarding safety concerns surrounding highway access to the gas bar.

He said the department was looking into addressing traffic concerns in the area.

A month later, Doyle Piwniuk took over the infrastructure portfolio and sent a letter to Waywayseecappo Chief Murray Clearsky telling him that highway access to the gas bar would be cut off on July 17, 2022. As of this week, vehicles can still access the gas bar off the highway.

“As you know, there are significant safety concerns with the access to PTH 10 at this location,” Piwniuk wrote.

“Therefore, Manitoba Transportation and Infrastructure is prepared to undertake, at our expense, the required design and construction work to re-establish the road connection between the Waywayseecappo Gas Bar and Sandison Road (road to Brandon Airport) as soon as possible.”

In a June 9 letter from a departmental official to Clearsky, it was stated that the First Nation was still looking for a speed reduction and a turning lane along Highway 10, but the official said the matter had already been settled.

“During this last discussion, the indication is that the First Nation felt that Manitoba Transportation and Infrastructure was starting a consultation process with Waywayseecappo First Nation, regarding the removal of the access to Provincial Trunk Highway (PTH) 10,” the letter reads.

“As the closure of the access was agreed to during the Addition to Reserve process, this requirement is not new and consultation has already occurred.”

The letter ends with a request for permission for Manitoba Infrastructure to construct the new service road by the July 17 deadline.

The documents outline that during a June 15 meeting between Waywayseecappo, Rolling River First Nation and Keeseekoowenin First Nation — which co-own a plot of land that extends around the gas bar site — with Manitoba Infrastructure, the area’s director of highway operations was told that the First Nations want the speed limit reduced and for their businesses to have direct highway access.

However, at the time, Manitoba Infrastructure had not received a formal request for the speed limit to change.

By this point, the province noted it had received five letters from the RM of Elton, three phone calls from the RCMP, two calls from Brandon Fire and Emergency Services, 14 phone calls from other nearby businesses and noted “numerous publications in The Brandon Sun” and social media threads regarding safety concerns at the gas bar’s highway access.

On Tuesday, Clearsky told the Sun that his nation has no interest in a new service road and said no compensation had been provided by the province following its destruction in 2020.

“There’s been a road access from the highway to that property since the 1800s,” Clearsky said. “It’s a grandfather clause, they don’t have the right to shut it down.”

He acknowledged that there were safety concerns and said that was why Waywayseecappo had requested a turning lane and a speed limit reduction near the gas bar entrance. However, he said, he has yet to hear back from Manitoba Infrastructure on the proposal.

“We paid for the engineer to do [a design] for us, on our behalf, and we shared it with the province’s infrastructure people,” he said. “They never got back to us. We’ve been at this ever since we opened … I even told them we would cost share to put a turning lane in.”

He described an incident from this summer where a Manitoba Infrastructure official tried to shut down highway access to the gas bar on a busy day, but was stopped by an RCMP officer who prevented him from doing so.

In an interview on Thursday, Piwniuk said he was not aware of that incident or the First Nation’s idea to install a turning lane, but he did say that work is underway to find a solution that works for the province, the nearby municipalities and the First Nation.

Both Piwniuk and Clearsky referenced a recent meeting held between provincial officials and representatives from Waywayseecappo this summer at the property to discuss the situation.

“We discussed the amount of traffic on Highway 10 and had a discussion about some of the solutions that we want to provide so, basically, people have access to their business but, at the same time, we really need to focus on safety for Manitoba drivers,” Piwniuk said.

On that July 17 deadline, the minister said, the matter is being taken back to the department to figure out both short and long-term solutions to the issue.

One likely short-term move to improve safety, he said, could be a temporary speed reduction while a permanent solution is followed. Whatever solution is determined will require consultation with local stakeholders.

The minister expressed hope that a speed limit reduction could be implemented by the end of this year.

RM of Elton Reeve Ross Farley didn’t respond to requests for comment by press time.

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