Thousands of evacuees from Lake St. Martin First Nation could finally be closer to going home after being displaced by the 2011 flood in Manitoba.
The Lake St. Martin chief, councilors, band members, other officials and elders held a ground breaking ceremony Monday afternoon at a new site for the reserve.
Contractors will start building new homes and other infrastructure for the new community which is expected to cost $300-million.
Manitoba Premier Greg Selinger said the province is paying for 40 per cent of the new construction while the federal government will be paying the rest.
“We've already put in a $100million aside to pay for some of this and today's announcement starts the first 40 new houses to be built at Lake St. Martin," said Selinger.
Asked why it took four years to see progress for a new community, Selinger cited planning as a main reason for the timeline.
"It was a complete rebuild and there was a lot of work that had to be done on the planning of it,” said the Premier. “Land acquisition, to make sure the designs were done, the engineering was done, I'm not making any excuses. We would've like to have done it faster. We're here, we're moving forward that's what counts.”
Lake St. Martin elder Violet Ross said she’s looking forward to leaving the city and moving closer to her original community.
Ross has lived in three hotels in the last four years after living on reserve her entire life prior to being forced out with thousands of others after the flood.
"I like it here but it's already too long waiting. I want to go back," said Ross. "I hope everything will be there, like a church too and school for the kids.”
Selinger says more houses will be built if necessary to accommodate as many members as need to be but couldn’t commit to an exact number or say when people will be able to start moving into their new homes.
