Brokenhead Ojibway Nation in Manitoba is calling on governments and a mining company to respect a 2025 community vote that rejected a partnership on a proposed silica sand extraction project near Beausejour.
In a statement released June 23, 2026, the First Nation said its members voted 181 to 129 in August 2025 against a deal with Alberta-based Sio Silica. The company had offered a 5% share of profits, worth up to $20 million a year once the project reached full capacity, but the community said no.
Chief Gordon Bluesky said the vote must be honoured. “Our membership has spoken, and that decision must be respected,” he said in the statement. “If anything is going to move forward within our territory, the federal government must obtain our full consent. This will not occur until such time as our concerns and issues are properly mitigated.”
The Sio Silica project would pull high-purity sand from underground aquifers that supply drinking water to about 100,000 people in southeastern Manitoba. The province rejected the company’s first licence in February 2024, saying the extraction method was unproven and the risk to water was too great. A new application with fewer wells and lower volumes is now under review.
Chief Bluesky said any future development must address groundwater protection and other environmental worries. “The path forward requires all levels of government and the project proponent to work together with our First Nation to accommodate concerns surrounding the protection of groundwater and any other potential environmental impacts associated with silica sand extraction,” he said.
Meanwhile, Long Plain First Nation signed an agreement in October 2025 to lead an environmental review of the project. Brokenhead Ojibway Nation has said its opposition stands no matter what changes are made to the plan.
