WINNIPEG -- Lake St. Martin First Nation’s Federal Court application to extend evacuee benefits for community members displaced by the 2011 flood has been denied by a judge.

Lake St. Martin argued in court, benefits should be continued for people who don’t have homes to return to in a rebuilt community in a new location. Extreme flooding forced the evacuation of the entire First Nation and destroyed all homes, buildings and community infrastructure.

The application for an injunction was filed by Lake St. Martin’s chief and council.

“The LSM (Lake St. Martin First Nation) cannot succeed because it has failed to meet its burden of establishing irreparable harm,” Federal Court Justice Cecily Strickland wrote in a 43-page decision dated Jan. 29, 2020. “The motion is therefore denied.”

Lake St. Martin Chief Adrian Sinclair said he’s shocked by the decision.

“That was pretty hard to accept with the amount of evacuees that we’re going to be leaving on the streets here in Winnipeg without rent and housing,” said Sinclair. “It’s a very hard decision to take.”

Lake St. Martin had argued some band members still have no homes to return to and will end up homeless, their children will have their schooling disrupted as families will not be able to afford temporary housing or food which it argued is currently funded through evacuee benefits.

Lawyers for the federal government argued there are enough homes in the new First Nation to accommodate community members.

According to numbers in the court decision, there will soon be a total of 310 homes in the rebuilt community plus an additional 40-unit apartment building for a total of 350 homes.

“There will now be 1191 bedrooms available for 1297 evacuees, their children born since 2011, and children who have since turned 18,” Strickland wrote. “It is reasonable to think that some of these evacuees will be couples who will share a bedroom and small children who will be able to do the same.”

“Canada points out that this significantly exceeds the pre-flood housing of 182 homes and submits that it was on this basis that the determination was made that there was sufficient housing to accommodate all evacuated residents, as well as children born since 2011, and that benefits could, therefore, be ended as of December 31, 2019,” Strickland noted. “The difficulty I am faced with is that there is little evidence to support the LSM (Lake St. Martin) First Nation’s position that evacuees have nowhere to return to on reserve and will be rendered homeless if evacuees benefits are terminated.”

Sinclair disagrees with the court’s assessment.

“All the houses in the reserve are taken and they’re maximized to the space that they’re required to for each family,” said Sinclair. “A five-bedroom home, there’s about six people in them so the rooms are maximized. I don’t know where they’re getting this information from.

“A lot of people want to go home. The problem is we just don’t have enough housing.”

Indigenous Services Canada said as of Jan.9, 2020, 475 evacuees have returned to the rebuilt Lake St. Martin community. The government said there are 130 evacuees whose benefits are continuing until the end of March when their homes are ready.

Sinclair said he’ll be holding a meeting next Monday in Winnipeg with community members to give an update on the situation.