Prairie Green landfill operations paused amid calls to search for remains of 2 women: Manitoba premier
Premier and Winnipeg mayor met Thursday to discuss search, say communication is ongoing
Operations at a private landfill where police believe the remains of two women are located will be paused, Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson and Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham said Thursday afternoon at City Hall.
Stefanson said it's unknown how long operations at Prairie Green Landfill, which is located north of the Perimeter Highway in the Rural Municipality of Rosser, will be on pause, meaning nothing new will come in to the site.
But she hopes this is a positive step in the right direction for the affected families.
"I think it's very important that for right now we take this pause and we get this right," Stefanson said.
The premier said she believed operations for a section of the dump had been paused by Waste Connections of Canada ahead of her announcement with the mayor.
Discussions surrounding any potential compensation have yet to be discussed, Stefanson said.
WATCH | Prairie Green landfill as seen from above:
A large portion of Winnipeg's commercial, multi-family and industrial waste goes to Prairie Green. However, Brady Road landfill can absorb anything bound for Prairie Green except for contaminated soil, according to the city's chief administrative officer Michael Jack.
Police announced last week that 35-year-old Jeremy Skibicki, who was charged with first-degree murder in the death of Rebecca Contois in May, is now charged with the deaths of three more women.
Skibicki was charged last week with first-degree murder in the deaths of of Marcedes Myran, Morgan Harris and a third woman, whom community members have named Buffalo Woman, because police do not know her identity.
Police believe Myran's and Harris's remains are at the Prairie Green Landfill, but said it's not feasible to search the dump.
The premier said she isn't sure what the next step is at this time, including the decision to search or not to search the dump. But she says communication is ongoing with various partners, including law enforcement, the City of Winnipeg and Indigenous communities.
'It's a burial site': Redsky
Gillingham said it's particularly important that leaders and members of Indigenous communities help inform next steps.
He met with Diane Redsky – executive director of Ma Mawi Wi Chi Itata Centre, an Indigenous family resource organization — and other Indigenous community leaders Thursday morning.
Redsky said they asked the mayor for two things, the first of which — pausing operations at the landfill — has been done. The second was to conduct a full assessment and feasibility study with the experts in the province and, if need be, from around the globe.
"We wanted to have and needed to have a conversation with him because we felt that more can be done, and our Indigenous women and girls have a right to safety and security," she said.
Redsky says there are concerns that searching Prairie Green will turn up more human remains, which would only add to the heartache, but also give closure to more families beyond Myran's and Harris's.
"As far as we are concerned, it's not a landfill," Redsky said. "It's a burial site."
Coun. Markus Chambers (St. Norbert-Seine River), who is also the police board chair, agreed.
WATCH | Winnipeg mayor and Manitoba premier speak on landfill search:
"Given the fact that the community has just come through the residential school system and the unmarked graves, we have to be sensitive to that, and that's where we are right now in requesting this pause," he said.
Chambers and Gillingham were on their way to an impromptu police board meeting at Winnipeg Police Service headquarters, along with Police Chief Danny Smyth and senior inspectors, with the complexities of a potential search were to be discussed.
The mayor, who sits on the police board, deferred questions about calls for the dismissal of Smyth to the board.
Chambers also said he doesn't speak unilaterally on behalf of the board about Smyth's future.
"Everything is status quo right now."
Redsky said she has had a "meaningful relationship" with Smyth, but if the police fail to do all of their due diligence with regard to searching for the remains of Myran and Harris, she said she wouldn't hesitate to call for his dismissal.
"If there was any point in any of the investigation where the police dropped the ball and did not do the best that they could, then absolutely I support that decision," she said.
Not directing police, premier, mayor say
Earlier Thursday, Stefanson spoke to reporters after her state of the province speech to the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce.
"This is obviously a horrific tragedy, and it has hit the very core, I think, of who we all are as Manitobans. It's devastating, what has happened to these families, and we can't let this go on," she said.
"I've asked the government departments to look into seeing what our role is, what we can do in this."
Stefanson wouldn't call on the police to search for the bodies.
Gillingham said on Wednesday that the door to a possible police search of the landfill is not closed.
"I don't want to direct the police. That's their job, and I think they know best when it comes to how to deal with those situations," she said.
Manitoba NDP leader Wab Kinew said he thinks it's important to try to find the remains of the women.
"I take seriously technical considerations, feasibility, safety of people conducting a search, it has to be first and foremost. But when I look at ... a pair of grieving daughters, I look at grieving family members, I think it's important that we make the effort," he said in an interview after the state of the province speech.
WATCH | Daughters of Morgan Harris on Power & Politics:
Corrections
- A previous version of this story gave an incorrect age for Jeremy Skibicki.Dec 09, 2022 7:02 PM CT
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