Shacks may be iced - St. Clements seeks ban after fishers leave 'pigsty' Posted by Steve on Tuesday, April 20, 2010 (14:32:51) (71 reads)
The Rural Municipality of St. Clements is mounting a campaign to have the province ban ice-fishing shacks from the Red River in a bid to end the mess left behind each spring.
In a letter to Water Stewardship Minister Christine Melnick, the rural municipality north of Winnipeg said it's seeking support from the neighbouring RM of St. Andrews and the City of Selkirk to prohibit the installation of permanent ice-fishing shelters.
Pails of human waste, treated lumber, furniture, booze bottles and five entire shacks were among the items left behind after the March 15 deadline to remove ice shacks.
"We feel the municipality should do their part by speaking out against these ice shelters and the unnecessary carnage they leave behind on the ice," the RM wrote in a March 25 letter to Melnick.
St. Clements Coun. Robert Belanger said no amount of education or enforcement has prevented the annual "environmental disaster" on the Red, which he points out is a Canadian heritage river.
"Go out there in the winter. It's a pigsty. It's a joke," said Belanger, who is also founder and co-ordinator of Red River Operation Cleanup.
"(A permanent shelter ban) is the only solution. You have a cancer, you cut it out."
The RM also warns the maze of ice shacks made it difficult for ice-cutters working to minimize flooding damage from spring ice jams.
Melnick was not available for comment.
However, André Desrosiers from Manitoba Natural Resources said he's disgusted at what he sees when he patrols the river in the winter.
"Seventy-five per cent of the people using these permanent shelters, they're no longer fishing shelters. They're party places," he said.
Some shacks Desrosiers has removed after the March 15 deadline didn't even have fishing holes, he said.
Of the 520 shacks on the Red this winter, about 80 per cent of them were involved in some kind of illegal activity. In late February, RCMP and Natural Resources issued 12 tickets for fishing and open-liquor infractions after checking about 200 shacks.
St. Clements Mayor Steve Strang said the province recognizes the problem and he is discussing options such as issuing shack permits, enhanced licensing, or even the establishment of a river commission to oversee such activities on the Red. Another solution the RM proposed is temporary pop-up shelters.
"I don't want to take this fishery away," Strang said.
"We have to find a solution... is it outright banning them? If we can't come up with a (solution) then it may be the only answer, but I think we can by talking to everybody."
Donovan Pearase, president of the Walleye Anglers Association of Manitoba, said he would prefer a licensing system, more money for enforcement and heavy fines -- rather than an outright ban on shacks.
"Nobody should have their rights stepped on. It's a small percentage out here who are ruining it for everybody,'' Pearase said.
"Go after the people who are doing it. Set up rules, licences, and have enough enforcement present on the river to stop these people from doing this."
He said the sewage and garbage from permanent shacks is nothing compared with what the City of Winnipeg puts in the river.
Existing legislation requires ice-fishing shacks to have a name and address displayed on the outside.
Ice Breakers Posted by Steve on Wednesday, March 10, 2010 (20:06:51) (110 reads)
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AYA Posted by Steve on Sunday, December 13, 2009 (18:55:25) (206 reads)
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ice ice baby Posted by Steve on Sunday, November 15, 2009 (19:41:01) (206 reads)
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Hovercraft floated Posted by Jim on Thursday, August 20, 2009 (17:47:40) (134 reads)
Report calls for more ice mitigation equipment
By Brian Bowman
The Manitoba government is looking into using a hovercraft to break up ice on the Red River to reduce flooding caused by ice jams.
Last Friday, both Steve Topping, Water Stewardship executive director, and Water Stewardship Minister Christine Melnick said a hovercraft would be an advantage to breaking up ice to avoid flooding.
Melnick and Topping also said officials are looking at adding more ice cutters and a third Amphibex ice-breaking machine.
“The 2009 flood demonstrated the severe challenges that can result from exceptional spring weather conditions and this experience will be valuable in managing future floods,” Melnick said. “Flood-control and flood-fighting improvements made since 1999 have paid off, but we learned where improvements can be made.”
St. Andrews Reeve Don Forfar said he does not expect the Tri-S region to get another Amphibex machine for use in this area of the Red River. Last spring, two Amphibexes were deployed north of Selkirk.
Forfar said an Amphibex meeting is scheduled in the upcoming weeks.
“We may get another ice cutter and, more importantly, refine the ones we got,” Forfar said Tuesday morning. “Those (cutters) were an experiment and we have three of them, the first one experienced about $30,000 in warranty repairs right off the get go.”
Forfar said the ice cutters are expected to be used earlier next year. He hopes they won’t have to undergo as many repairs.
Meanwhile, Melnick said the province continues to discuss dredging with the federal government as it’s a federal responsibility.
The province released two reports on the 2009 flood and a third report on the operation of the Red River Floodway late last week. They can be viewed at www.gov.mb.ca/waterstewardship.
“In managing these remarkable challenges, we have gained the experience to develop strategies to better deal with future events,” said Melnick.
Manitoba was hit with the second-highest flood since 1852. Ice jams complicated floodway operations and caused extensive overland flooding as a result of frozen drainage systems.
The province said it has invested $310 million since 1997 in flood mitigation works such as ring dikes and floodway expansion. Flood protection investments and innovative flood management efforts led to remarkable flood damage reduction savings in the order of $11 billion, said Melnick.
Also under study is changing the floodway inlet to allow more water in to reduce the flood threat to Winnipeg and to limit flooding south of the city when the gates are activated.
The province is also looking at raising sections of Highway 75 near Morris and other provincial roads to keep them open in moderate floods.
They also announced they are committed to a number of actions already including flood protection for the Peguis and Fisher River First Nations, the Red River north of Winnipeg and other at-risk areas and improvements to the City of Winnipeg’s secondary dike and sewer systems to reduce the risk of basement flooding from sewer backup.
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