Manitoba NDP, PCs still trading barbs over landfill search

Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew has revealed the cost associated with searching a landfill north of Winnipeg for the remains of two First Nations women last winter. Kinew said the search at the privately owned Prairie Green landfill cost $18 million – much less than the $184 million first proposed. “We are a government that does what it says,” Kinew said in an emailed statement Thursday. “We told the people of Manitoba that we would search the landfill and we would do so in a fiscally responsible way and we delivered on that by completing the search for $18 million.” The search team, hired by the province, located the remains of Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran in February. The women were murdered by a convicted serial killer, along with two other First Nations women, in the spring of 2022 and their bodies disposed of in the garbage. The search ended officially last month, the province said. Read More: ‘It’s a heavy day’: Families of slain women react to landfill discovery Now, the province said the team and equipment has been relocated to Winnipeg’s Brady Road landfill to search for the remains of Ashlee Shingoose, a third victim of the same serial killer. The remains of the fourth and last victim – Rebecca Contois – were located in the Brady landfill in June 2022. The search has been a political issue since before Kinew was elected premier in October 2023. While he pledged to search for the remaining women’s remains during the election campaign, the governing Progressive Conservatives refused (along with the Winnipeg Police Service) citing the proposed $84 million to $184 million pricetag and safety concerns. “The search at Prairie Green Landfill included the highest standard of health and safety for the workers with trauma-informed mental-health supports …” Kinew added in the statement. “The PCs and their new leader (Obby Khan), should tell Manitobans why they put up billboard ads exaggerating the costs of the search by 10 times.” Khan’s spokesperson noted the $184-million cost estimate was contained in a feasibility study commissioned by the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs – not a dollar figure produced by the PC party. One of four, full-page newspaper ads the Manitoba PC Party published in the Winnipeg Free Press during the 2023 election campaign. Photo: APTN News “As you are aware, former Premier (Heather) Stefanson, interim leader (Wayne) Ewasko and PC Leader Obby Khan have all apologized for the 2023 election campaign and the harm it caused to the victims’ families,” the spokesperson said in an email to APTN. The spokesperson did not respond to APTN’s question about what the party paid for the billboard and newspaper ads opposing a landfill search. Khan replaced Stefanson as leader in April. -with files from Dennis Ward Continue Reading