Manitoba premier visits flood-prone Peguis First Nation, fills sandbags

PEGUIS FIRST NATION, MAN. –  

Manitoba’s premier donned a Toronto Blue Jays hat and a safety vest Thursday to pack sandbags and meet volunteers in a community bracing yet again for a fight against flooding.

“It really is a race to try and protect the homes in this community,” Wab Kinew told reporters at Peguis First Nation, north of Winnipeg.

“It’s clear that the community has rallied together, and so the whole province wants to support that effort and protect homes and the people here.”

The First Nation is trying to mitigate potentially disastrous water damage from the rising Fisher River.

Kinew took part in a drum song and toured the community’s multiplex, which is being prepped as an evacuation centre. 

He worked alongside volunteers to make sandbags, shovelling sand into white sacks and moving them onto a flatbed to be transported throughout the community. He visited operation sites and a home where volunteers were setting up the sandbags. He stopped for photos with residents. 

Flood preparations began last week after the First Nation, located in the Interlake region, was warned it could see water levels similar to those in 2022, when roughly 2,000 residents were forced out and hundreds of homes were damaged.

Kinew said it’s expected that about 500 people, including volunteers and workers, are in the community to help. Along with the sandbags, they’re building clay dikes.

Changing weather and deteriorating road conditions are proving problematic, and the province has said there may be evacuations if water cuts off road access to the community.

Water levels are expected to rise next week and peak by April 24, said Kinew. 

Chief Stan Bird said he anticipates evacuations could begin this weekend to avoid the panic that has come with previous displacements. 

“Because of what’s happened in the past and the chaos that comes with the floodwaters, we want a more orderly evacuation,” he said. 

Leadership is still determining where evacuees will be sent, he added. 

Bird has said about 225 homes require flood protection, such as sandbags or water-filled barriers commonly known as Tiger Dams.

The community, considered the largest First Nation in Manitoba, has more than 10,000 members. Data from the federal government suggests roughly 3,800 live on the reserve. 

Peguis First Nation has dealt with several floods in recent decades.

It was relocated in 1907 — from good farming land close to Winnipeg to its current location on a flood-prone river delta — under a surrender of land to the federal government later deemed illegal.

Leadership has long called for permanent flood protection.

Bird said there have been some positive conversations with the Manitoba and federal governments and that something could be in the works for as early as this summer. 

The province’s last flood bulletin released on Tuesday predicts an increased flood risk in the Interlake region due to warmer weather. Runoff in the Fisher and Icelandic River basins could start next week, with peak flows between April 23 and 28.

The outlook also cites an elevated risk of overland flooding in the Parkland region. Elsewhere across the province, the risk remains moderate to low. 

The Red River floodway may begin operating this weekend to control water levels in Winnipeg. 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 16, 2026.