Wabigoon settles century-old flood dispute

Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation was crowded on May 18 as $5,000 flood claim payments were handed out to band members 18 years and older.
“You couldn’t even get in the parking lot,” said Council, Bill Parenteau. “You had people lined up here at a quarter to eight in the morning and we don’t even open until 9 a.m.”
The Treaty #3 community of about 592 band members is paying out about $3 million in flood claim payments, including the recent payments made to all members 18 and older and the payments being held in trust for members under 18 years old until they turn 18.
Girly’s Restaurant owner Yvonne Pitchenese invested her flood claim payment into her business, while other community members bought vehicles, washers, dryers, fridges, stoves, televisions and other items.
Wabigoon Lake received $27 million in financial compensation after settling a century-old flood claim with Ontario for past and ongoing flooding of the community’s shoreline.
“This settlement with Ontario goes some distance to right the wrong committed against our First Nation,” said Wabigoon Lake Chief Ruben Cantin Sr. “The compensation will assist our community to invest in our future by building capacity socially, economically and through education.”
The flood claim was filed over the 1897 construction of a provincially-approved dam without the community’s consent and its further reconstruction in 1912 for power generation. The dam caused water levels to rise and flood almost 20 per cent of the reserve.
Cantin said the water went up 18 inches in 1897 and another eight feet after the dam was reconstructed.
“It literally flooded out an estimated 2,300 acres of reserve land,” Cantin said. “At the old settlement, I think there were eight houses that got washed into the lake, like the water rose so fast they didn’t have time to move. They were just caught in the rising water — they didn’t know what was happening because nobody informed them this was going to happen.”
Cantin said the lake currently located at the south end of the community did not exist before the dam was built.
“There was just a little pond and the rest was swamp,” Cantin said. “It was very traumatizing for the community members.”
Cantin said the claim did not make any payments for trauma, only for items that could be measured, such as hay, loss of land, forest and rice fields.
“A way of life was changed in a matter of days and people were forced to leave their old homesteads and literally move all over the place on this side of the lake,” Cantin said.
“When they came over to this side, they started logging rather than carrying on with their traditional lifestyle.”
Cantin said there is still evidence of the log homes that community members used to live in on the far side of the lake.
“At that time there had been a graveyard along the beach,” Cantin said. “My understanding is that within a day or two the whole graveyard site was submerged and through time it just eroded away.”
Cantin said there are still remnants of cast iron cooking stoves sticking out of the sand along the former community’s shoreline.
“Oral history tells us there was lake trout in (the lake),” Cantin said. “It was a crystal clear lake prior to the flooding.”
Wabigoon Lake is planning a ceremony for June 11 at the powwow grounds where Kathleen Wynne, minister of Aboriginal Affairs, is expected to officially apologize for the community’s loss.
“We are going to feast those that were traumatized across the lake,” Cantin said. “And hopefully good things will come out of it.”
Wynne said the provincial government is committed to building relationships with First Nation communities and working in partnership with them.
“This landmark settlement will support a more sustainable and prosperous future for Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation,” Wynne said.
Cantin said the flood claim monies are being invested into a trust fund for the community’s future.
“If we are going to be successful in the future, investments have to be made for the youth, especially in the area of education,” Cantin said. “We’re trying to get the biggest bang for our dollar for the future.”