This 2001 report explains why Manitoba is falling behind, compared to other western provinces, in protecting its natural heritage for future generations. Between 47% to 62% of the Duck Mountain, Nopiming and Whiteshell Provincial Parks are open to industrial activities such as clear-cut logging. The report recommends writing the government to urge for full protection of these parks and to create new parks such as the proposed Sturgeon Bay and Manigotagan Parks.

Parks at risk: Manitoba

Wilderness Committee Educational Report Vol.20 - No.03, Summer/Fall 2001

Aerial photo of Pine Falls Paper Co., a subsidiary of Tembec, located in Manitoba. The mill is fed by trees from Nopiming and Whiteshell Provincial Park. Photo credit: Steve Daniels

An Illegal Dangerous Bridge

by Dave Nickarz

The Pine Falls mill, located at the mouth of the Winnipeg River has been operating since the 1920's. Their For- est Management License includes 62% of Nopiming Provincial Park and over the years they have expanded their logging operations further and further into the boreal forest in Eastern Manitoba. Pine Falls now wants to expand their operations up into the East Side of Lake Winnipeg.

A dangerous bridge spans the Manigotagan River in Nopiming Pro- vincial Park. The Pine Falls Paper. Company (now owned by Tembec) built this illegal logging bridge in 1993 without authorization from the Cana- dian Coast Guard and in clear viola- tion of their own Environment Act Licence.

The company's Environment Act Licence 1557E clearly states that no permanent bridges be built over the Manigotagan River. But the company's own documents state that this bridge will be in place for 10 years. According to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, temporary bridges can be in place no longer than two years.

Licence 1557E also requires that all bridges built across the Manigotagan River by the company not constitute a hazard to canoeists. At high water this bridge is only 30 centimeters above the ' water. This clearly leaves no room for passage underneath, creating a undeniable hazard to canoeists.

When these violations were brought to the attention of Manitoba government bureaucrats in 1997, they simply refused to acknowledge that there was any problem.

There was an indifferent, also un- satisfactory, response from the Cana- dian Coast Guard, the federal agency that is responsible for authorizing all structures built over navigable waterways. After several letters of complaint about the hazards of this bridge, the Coast Guard promised to look into the matter. Eight years since the construction of the bridge and four years after the first complaint, the Coast Guard has failed to take any action.

This bridge continues to pose a clear hazard to anyone canoeing on the Manigotagan River in Nopiming Provincial Park. It provides mute tes- timony to our governments' unwill- ingness to properly regulate the mul- tinational forest industry.