March 13, 2009
Fisher River Cree Nation has put a lot of work into making the Fisher Bay Provincial Park a reality, and a lot of time; indeed a heinous amount of time. Lack of support is not the problem—the abundant show of hands in favour attests to that. The Fisher Bay area has fallen into the limbo that all hopeful Manitoban provincial parks seem to fall into. With seemingly no desire to adhere to a timeline, the government prefers to simply extend deadlines rather than putting in an effort. For Fisher Bay, that deadline was supposed to be back in 2005, now it is set for October 2010 though Conservation Minister Stan Struthers comments that he may go beyond the October 2010 deadline.
While the government has indicated that it is committed to achieving protected areas in our boreal forest regions, including Fisher Bay, the public continues to wait for the province to fulfil its obligation. This leaves us all to question how likely it is that these natural treasures will be here for our children and our children’s children. Premier Gary Doer can show us that he believes a prosperous future for Manitoba includes preserving our natural environment by quickly establishing a Fisher Bay provincial park.