A judge has approved a multimillion settlement to First Nations residents in four Manitoba communities.
The settlement resolves a class-action lawsuit filed by members of the four First Nations communities that were flooded nearly seven years ago – Lake St. Martin, Dauphin River, Little Saskatchewan and Pinaymootang.
In the court document, First Nations alleged that their members were forced to evacuate their homes in 2011 after the Manitoba government diverted water from the nearby Assiniboine River to reduce the risk of flooding in Winnipeg.
The communities claimed that the government was negligent in its operation of several water-control structures, which included the Shellmouth Dam and the Portage Diversion.
Last October, both the federal and Manitoba governments agreed to pay $90 million to as many as 7,000 recipients, but the offer required a judge’s approval.
On Friday, Justice James Edmond told the Court of Queen’s Bench in Winnipeg that the settlement is reasonable and offers a faster resolution than proceeding to trial.
“A settlement need not be perfect,” Edmond said.
The First Nations communities affected by the flooding had originally filed a $950 million class-action lawsuit, but it was denied in 2014.
“It’s not what we asked for, we asked for more than that, but one of the reasons we asked for more than that is because the government always try to chip away at it,” Pinaymootang First Nation member and class-action plaintiff Clifford Anderson told CBC News. “But $90 million, I think is a fairly significant amount.”
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