WINNIPEG – The province is calling the Portage Diversion protest Monday irresponsible, saying it could have caused devastating flooding downstream.
A group of Lake Manitoba farmers parked heavy machinery inside the Diversion, protesting the lack of compensation they’re received following the disastrous 2011 flood.
It prevented the operation of the diversion for 12 hours.
Tuesday, infrastructure and Transportation Minister Steve Ashton says it put over 1000 people at risk, including low lying homes in Winnipeg.
“Thank goodness we opened it because today we would have woken up to devastating flooding,” Ashton told the Legislature Tuesday afternoon.
Ashton says 2000 cubic feet per second was to be diverted through the division to Lake Manitoba Monday morning, but by the time the division opened when protestors left there was 7000 Cfs and a threatening ice jam.
Angry farmers who complained of not being properly compensated when the diversion was used and flooded their land in 2011 had moved tractors and other pieces of large equipment into the diversion on Monday.
Government spokesman Jean-Marc Prevost said when officials threatened to open the diversion anyway and sweep away the machines, the protesters themselves moved in and began to occupy the area.
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After discussions with RCMP officers protesters agreed to leave and removed their equipment after dark on Monday night. Water was then diverted into the channel and by Tuesday morning was flowing freely. The province says it had obtained a court injunction against the protest, but protesters say they were never served one and left the area on their own initiative.
Prevost says the opening of the diversion took place just in the nick of time, as a buildup of ice was nearing the diversion which could have caused a sudden flood crisis for communities downstream including the RM of Cartier, St. Francois Xavier and Headingley.
Farmer Kevin Yuill says the government needs to take steps to resolve the man-made flooding of Lake Manitoba.
“It has to equal out,” he told radio station CJOB. “In other words, whatever they let down the Portage Diversion has to have a way of getting out, and there has been no structure put in.”
By late Monday, Infrastructure Minister Steve Ashton had lost patience with the situation, saying his one and only priority was to ensure the diversion was open to protect communities downstream.
“Anybody who’s preventing that operation is putting other Manitobans at risk,” he said. “People are entitled, if they have issues, to protest, to request meetings. You cross the line when you end up trespassing and moving to impede the operation of flood protection.
“This is not the way we do things in Manitoba. Period.”
Manitoba’s Infrastructure Department says it needs to use the channel this year to protect the Rural Municipality of Cartier and the communities of St. François Xavier and Headingley from ice jams.
The department says Lake Manitoba is at levels in the middle of its operating range — well below historical averages. It says it has stationed earth-movers at the outlet to be used if levels on the lake reach the extreme range.
Opening the diversion without moving the equipment that was placed there would not have been without risk.
“Senior officials advise that any farm machinery remaining within the channel has the potential to damage flood control infrastructure further down the diversion,” the province said in a statement. “However, officials have determined those risks are outweighed by the imminent flood threat.”
The channel was used during the last major flood in 2011, but the levels on the lake rose so much that farmland was flooded and cottages were destroyed.
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