COMMUNITY AND PUBLIC INPUT

The East Side Road Authority (ESRA) is committed to the involvement of local residents, community leaders and non-governmental organizations as the East Side Transportation Initiative proceeds.

To gather public input, ESRA has established a Public Involvement Program for the East Side Transportation Initiative.

The Public Involvement Program consists of two separate but related components:

1) All-season road from PR 304 to Berens River First Nation

ESRA has enlisted the engineering consultant firm of SNC-Lavalin/AECOM as the Study Team to review various route options and to conduct the environmental impact assessment of the all-season road from PR 304 near Manigotagan to Berens River First Nation.

To assist in identifying the appropriate route and to assess the environmental impacts, the Project Team has held a series of community and public meetings to hear from local residents and stakeholders in the study region regarding the construction of an all-season road.

Round 1- Project Introductory Meetings have been completed and feedback received from the communities was incorporated into the Environmental Impact Assessment, which was filed in November, 2009. Subsequently, Round 2 Community Meetings were held to report back to local residents on the EIA.

Before construction can begin, the project requires authorizations from federal and provincial regulators. On August 16, 2010, ESRA received an Environment Act License (Environment Act License No. 2929) from Manitoba Conservation for the All-Season Road from PR 304 to Berens River First Nation.

Currently, a Comprehensive Study Report for the Project is being completed to meet the requirements of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act. Federal approval for the project is anticipated in 2011. In the meantime, ESRA is undertaking road work that is authorized under its provincial Environment Act License.

2) East Side Large Area Transportation Network Study

The East Side Transportation Study is a strategic initiative to identify potential linkages and improvements to the existing transportation network on the East Side of Lake Winnipeg. As a planning exercise a key goal of the broader area network study is to identify ways to provide improved, safe, and more reliable transportation services among the communities located beyond the PR 304 to Berens River Project Region.

ESRA has enlisted engineering consultant firm of SNC-Lavalin/AECOM as the Study Team to undertake the broader area transportation network study which will include consideration of:

Potential traffic demands
Travel distances and patterns
Identification of preferred alignments and routing options
Costing of construction,
Minimizing environmental and social impacts,
Accomodation of tradtitional land use patterns.

As part of the study, The Project Team has hosted a number of rounds of community and public meetings to hear from local residents regarding their views on ways and means to improve transportation services within the region.

Round 1 – Transportation Network Study Region Introductory Meetings were held in communities throughout the region. During these meetings, ten all-season road route options were presented to the public. Based on public input, traditional ecological knowledge studies and analysis of technical considerations, these options have been refined into three shortlisted route options.

Subsequently, Round 2 Community Meetings were held in local communities to update local residents and gather additional information on the shortlisted route options.

On November 9, 2010, based on early results of SNC’s review and subsequent discussions with First Nation communities on the east side, ESRA is recommending an east-west route that involves a “Y” junction north of Molson Lake with branches going north-east to the Northern Cree Communities of Bunibonibee Cree Nation, Manto Sipi Cree Nation, and God’s Lake First Nation, and south-east to the Island Lake communities of Red Sucker Lake, Garden Hill, Wasagamack and St. Theresa Point First Nations.