Poplar River First Nation still dreams of all-season road, and the political will to make it happen

Every two weeks when the winter road opens, Mabel Bruce makes the approximately seven-hour drive south from the northeastern Manitoba community of Poplar River First Nation to Winnipeg.

She goes to stock up on groceries and supplies, since “they’re a little cheaper,” Bruce said. “We bring a lot of stuff home when we go shopping in Winnipeg.”

Leaders in the remote First Nation, approximately 350 kilometres as the crow flies north of Winnipeg, have been pushing for an all-season road for the past four decades, according to Vera Mitchell, who was chief when CBC visited Poplar River in late September.

A permanent road is required to connect the community with the rest of the province, which is a fly-in community when the winter road isn’t open.

“One hundred per cent it needs it really badly because of the price of moving material and foods and everything,” said Mitchell, who didn’t seek another term in the community’s Oct. 29 election, after a total of 16 years as chief. The new chief and council began their term Sunday.

“It’s been on our wish list for 40 years.”

But with the costs for such a major project rising, Mitchell knows getting it done will take a lot of political will.

Poplar River First Nation, home to about 1,200 people, is located on the east side of Lake Winnipeg where costs for critical supplies are higher than in southern Manitoba.

In 2011, the Manitoba government conducted a study for the now defunct East Side Road Authority on extending the all-season road, which now runs as far as Berens River First Nation, another 93 kilometres north to Poplar River.

The cost at that time was estimated to be $317 million, but “we can assume, based on how costs have escalated for all other kinds of projects, that that’s probably tripled at this point,” said Lisa Naylor, the current transportation minister.

“There is no way that this province could pay for that project without a lot of help from the federal government.”

Right now, there aren’t any construction plans or a formal proposal with costs for the extension of the East Side Road from Berens River, according to Indigenous Services Canada spokesperson Sylvain-Nicolas Bourgeois.

“While the building and maintaining of permanent off-reserve roads falls under provincial jurisdiction, Indigenous Services Canada works in collaboration with the provinces and First Nations on potential longer-term plans,” Bourgeois said in an email.

State of emergency declared in 4 other First Nations

Poplar River isn’t alone in its desire for an all-season road.

Last winter, the chiefs of four isolated First Nations in northeastern Manitoba declared a state of emergency, after unusually warm weather made it impossible to bring in essential supplies via the province’s winter road system.

The declaration came after the First Nations made a proposal for an all-season road they said is urgently needed, as climate change threatens the winter road system. 

Bourgeois said Indigenous Services knows that shortened winter road seasons “heighten stress and logistical pressures for many remote First Nations.”

If necessary, the department “will provide funding support to Manitoba First Nations for alternative transport arrangements, such as airlifts, to ensure First Nations have essential supplies,” he said.

WATCH | Why Poplar River says it needs an all-season road:

With no road in the summer, bringing back goods from Winnipeg by plane can mean extra costs for overweight baggage.

Bailey Bittern feels the sticker shock every time he visits gas pumps at Poplar River’s Northern store to fill up his truck and jerry cans, which he uses to fill his boat to go moose hunting. Gas was $1.99 a litre in Poplar River on Friday. In Winnipeg, gas was selling for under $1.25 per litre this past weekend.

He also sees the need for an all-season road.

“I would like to see that happen just to drive out [and] grocery shop,” Bittern said. “[It’s] too expensive here,”

Some supplies also come into the community during summer on a barge, the MV Poplar River, that travels along Lake Winnipeg.

The barge is now back up and running, after it was damaged and knocked out of service in an explosion while dry docked in May 2022. That left the community in a pinch, driving the cost of gas to $3.13 per litre at one point.

“We never thought about before how important that boat was to us, until it exploded one day and couldn’t come this way,” said Ed Hudson, who recently served as a councillor in Poplar River.

“It hauls all our groceries, our petroleum, all kinds of stuff in the summertime.” 

When the barge, which is owned and operated by the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation, drops off supplies, it also picks up fish caught by commercial fishers from Poplar River to be sold around the world.

An all-season road would give fishers a faster, more reliable way to get their catch to market, according to David MacKay, who manages the community’s fishing station.

“We’d love an all-season road. However, let’s be realistic, that’s not likely to happen in the near future,” McKay said in an interview at his home near Winnipeg.  

Access could also bring problems 

However, leaders and community members have to weigh the problems that would come with making the First Nation more accessible, along with the benefits.

“I hear a lot of stuff from our neighbours down south that the drug dealers come in with their drugs, and it’s not a very good thing,” Hudson said.

It’s a challenge Bailey Bittern is well aware of too.

“I would like to see an all-weather road, but then again it’s the drugs and the alcohol too, a little bit more coming into the community,” he said.

Poplar River’s former chief understands those risks, but feels the positives outweigh the negatives.

“We have the same challenges now.… There’s drugs coming in and there’s alcohol,” Mitchell said. “It’s not going to change.”