Community split on Clear Lake consultation

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This article was published 13/04/2024 (588 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Members of the Riding Mountain National Park community are divided on Parks Canada’s communication strategy concerning the potential closure of Clear Lake due to invasive zebra mussels.

Municipality of Harrison Park Reeve Ian Drul defended the federal agency’s approach.

“Since the live zebra mussels clump was found in boat cove in November, Parks Canada have held multiple in-person and virtual public meetings to discuss what should happen with the lake,” Drul said in a statement Friday.

“Parks Canada staff at Clear Lake have been an open book.”

However, other community voices say they have been left in the dark.

Ashley Smith, an Indigenous business owner in the Clear Lake area, is frustrated about the lack of consultation with all seven nations associated with the Coalition of First Nations with Interests in Riding Mountain National Park (RMNP).

“That’s the scary part for us — we’re always being told what’s best for us, but nobody’s hearing our voices, and the consultation has seriously been lacking with the First Nation people,” she said Friday in a phone interview.

Smith said her businesses have already been impacted, with fewer reservations being made already in addition to outright cancellations.

“It’s not a question of if Parks Canada’s decisions will hit us, but how hard,” Smith said in a letter to the Sun.

“We’re just looking for that communication, and we’re looking to have our voices heard. And that’s what’s lacking.”

Aaron McKay is an Anishinaabe man from Rolling River First Nation, located 24 kilometres south of the park and one of the First Nations in the coalition. Currently running for a seat on his First Nation’s council, McKay told the Sun that the issue of the health of Clear Lake shouldn’t be looked at through a lens of profitability.

“I don’t see money. What I see is the spirit of that lake, and I see a sickness. I see a living being that is sick, and that living being, that piece of creation that is inside all of us, needs help,” he said.

McKay said he hopes Parks Canada will continue to provide publicly accessible information on any future decisions about Clear Lake, and that guidance will be taken through ceremony and cultural activities. Just as a sick person would go to a doctor who would listen to them and prescribe the best course of action, the spirit of the water, called Nibi in Anishinaabemowin, needs to be consulted as well, McKay added.

“When we all come together, we see … the uniqueness of the land and start hearing the voice of the land,” he said.

Any decision made about the health of Clear Lake, including how to handle the issue of zebra mussels or other invasive species, must be done with far-reaching consequences in mind, McKay said.

“We need to think about the future. We need to think about not just our grandchildren, but our great, great, great grandchildren. We’ve got to be thinking at least 100 years down the line.”

Before Manitoba elected a new NDP government in October, Trevor Maguire, chairperson of the Pelican Lake healthy lake committee, was named to the province’s aquatic invasive species committee. Since the NDP took over, the provincial committee has held meetings and a plan to protect Clear Lake and other Manitoba lakes from zebra mussels and other aquatic invasive species (AIS) is in place, although Maguire said he couldn’t share specifics on what it looks like.

“They took written submissions from all the (committee) members and they put together a plan, and from what I’ve seen of it, it looks good.”

Maguire was also pleased to see more funding for tackling AIS in the provincial budget in the form of an increase of $500,000 for the Aquatic Invasive Species Program. Money from the program, the budget outlines, will go toward increasing watercraft inspection and decontamination stations.

While these are all steps in the right direction, stringent rules like the ones Parks Canada set in motion last year, such as tagging boats, are the only way to ensure the future health of the lake. Even a ban on boats at all would be a reliable method to ensure more zebra mussels don’t contaminate the lake, Maguire added.

“It is the only way to stop the spread,” he said.

With any luck, rules that are just as strict or even stricter, if Parks Canada enforces them, will help Clear Lake bounce back from its current state, Maguire said. It’s not too late yet for the lake, especially since it’s not one that zebra mussels usually favour due to its cold temperatures and lack of turbidity and calcium, he said. However, if the public doesn’t abide by those rules, the problem will never be solved, he added.

“Of all the first world problems that we have to deal with, how terrible is it that we can’t move our expensive boats from lake to lake, and we have to pick one for the summer?” Maguire said. “It doesn’t sound like it’s that much of a hardship.”

If people can’t abide by whatever rules Parks Canada sets out, or if the rules aren’t strong enough, it won’t just be Clear Lake that’s at risk, but many lakes and other bodies of water in the area, Maguire added.

“The water is going to flow downstream, so eventually, everyone downstream from them is going to get infected,” he said.

What all parties seem to agree on is the importance of collaboration when discussing potential options for the lake.

“The federal, provincial and municipal governments all need to work together to make a plan for the region,” said Drul.

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