Protecting Seal River watershed necessary as governments look north for critical minerals: Indigenous alliance

Arturo Chang · CBC News

· Posted: Mar 05, 2025 8:24 PM EST | Last Updated: March 6

A immense expanse of pristine onshore successful bluish Manitoba is 1 measurement person to becoming a protected area.

A committee tasked with looking into the feasibility of making the Seal River watershed a protected country has ruled it is imaginable to crook the onshore into a protected area, including an Indigenous protected and conserved area (IPCA) and imaginable nationalist parkland reserve, and/or a provincial parkland successful the region. 

The appraisal was 1 of the steps agreed to successful a memorandum of knowing signed by an confederation of 4 section First Nation bands and the national and provincial governments a twelvemonth ago.

The Seal River Watershed Alliance — representing the Sayisi Dene, Northlands Denesuline, Barren Lands and O-Pipon-Na-Piwin Cree First Nations — said it wants to support the onshore pristine arsenic governments look to exploit mineral resources successful the north.

"We cognize that the [federal government's] captious mineral strategy truly looks toward the northbound and to Manitoba to assistance capable immoderate of those needs," said enforcement manager Stephanie Thorassie.

"We privation to marque definite that we're doing our portion to help support quality arsenic a afloat intact watershed."

The report says mineral exploration has taken spot determination in past decades, but it's been constricted by precocious costs due to its remoteness, presenting a important obstruction to aboriginal mining activity.

The study says a recent update to the province's mineral deposit database shows "possible mean to precocious mineral potential" successful areas of the watershed. Thorassie said the findings were portion of a desktop study, and it's not known precisely what benignant of minerals could beryllium there.

"The country would really request a sizeable magnitude of enactment done successful bid to person these kinds of economical opportunities enactment successful determination … not to notation the information that the nations themselves are wholly against mineral extraction successful the area," she said.

Recently, Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew took a cue from his predecessor, Heather Stefanson, successful calling the state the "Costco of captious minerals" during a sojourn to Washington, D.C., as part of a charm violative to person the U.S. authorities to driblet its tariff threats. 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has antecedently said U.S. President Donald Trump is pursuing Canada's annexation due to the fact that helium wants entree to the country's captious minerals.

Manitoba has 30 of 34 captious minerals

Kinew said past twelvemonth the state would beryllium looking into mining successful different areas of bluish Manitoba, but not the Seal River watershed.

The memorandum of knowing enactment successful spot impermanent protections from mineral exploration and staking successful the area. All mineral rights person been withdrawn until Dec. 31 of this year.

Provincial Environment Minister Mike Moyes said the state is committed to the intermission "while the speech is being had."

"There's tons of different areas successful the state we're going to beryllium looking … trying to guarantee that our minerals are being mined and being explored," helium said. "In this area, we're going to proceed that intermission to guarantee that that speech tin beryllium had."

The state has 30 retired of the 34 minerals on Canada's captious minerals list. Forty-five companies are actively exploring for 19 of those, according to the province's captious mineral strategy published past November.

The Seal River watershed, a 50,000-square-kilometre region west of the Hudson Bay, is 1 of the astir pristine watersheds successful the world, and 1 of its richest c sinks.

At slightest 25 known at-risk species inhabit the watershed, according to the national government, including wolverines, polar and grizzly bears, and barren-ground caribou.

Both the Manitoba and Canadian governments person touted the contributions protecting the country would marque to their respective clime targets. The state says it would summation the magnitude of conserved onshore successful the state by astir 7 per cent, importantly contributing to its people of reaching 30 per cent by 2030.

"We privation to marque definite that Manitobans and Canadians and section radical tin inactive entree the lands and water, the caribou that travel done there," Thorassie said.

"We tin promote visitors to sojourn these places. We cognize that our cultures are unique, and Indigenous tourism is another country we're hoping to assistance support."

Five commercialized lodges successful the country make astir $11 cardinal successful tourism gross per year, the study says. It besides cites a 2022 International Institute for Sustainable Development survey that recovered the worth of c stored determination is worthy astatine slightest $314.5 billion.

The confederation has held consultations with locals and stakeholders. An online survey conducted by Parks Canada past twelvemonth suggested a bulk of its 1,427 respondents agreed creating a nationalist parkland reserve successful the watershed would person benefits, including ecological stableness and advancing reconciliation.

Thorassie said the appraisal is conscionable a archetypal step, and that much consultations, arsenic good arsenic negotiations with the national and provincial governments are inactive to follow.

"Everything inactive needs to beryllium ironed out," she said. "What the protected country could look similar each has to beryllium decided … arsenic we determination forward."

Nearly 14 per cent of the country is already protected. Thirteen biology monitoring jobs person already been established.