The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs (AMC) thanked the federal government on January 9, 2026, after federal ministers approved the deployment of a specialized Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) team to assist the Pimicikamak Cree Nation (Cross Lake) following a prolonged power outage.
The AMC press release said Ministers Eleanor Olszewski (Minister of Emergency Management and Community Resilience) and David McGuinty (Minister of National Defence) approved the deployment. The CAF team is being sent to provide targeted assessment and advisory support focused on water treatment and sewage systems, power generation, project management and logistics; news reports say the team will deploy “as soon as feasible.”
Extreme cold and a multi-day outage in late December caused frozen and ruptured pipes that damaged hundreds of homes and forced thousands of residents to evacuate. Officials have reported at least 200 homes considered unlivable and many more under assessment.
Norway House has acted as a primary relief hub for evacuees while workers and repair crews work to restore basic services such as heat and safe drinking water. Norway House is about 70 kilometres south of Pimicikamak (Cross Lake), and the two communities share travel routes and regional infrastructure vulnerabilities.
The military’s role, as described by federal and local officials, is to provide project management and technical assessment and to advise on repairs to water, sewage and power-generation systems so local crews can prioritize and speed restoration work. CBC News and other outlets reporting on the response said the scale of damage exceeded what local crews alone could manage and that repairs could take weeks or months.
Grand Chief Kyra Wilson said the crisis was “not a natural disaster” but a preventable infrastructure failure and thanked federal ministers for responding. In the AMC press release she said emergency assistance must be followed by accountability and sustained investment, and added that “reliable power, safe water, and resilient systems are not optional.”
Chief David Monias of Pimicikamak welcomed the decision to send military support, calling the news encouraging and reiterating that the main need is help with water and sewer infrastructure. Officials have said a small CAF team with engineering and logistics expertise was expected to be deployed to assess repairs and advise on next steps; media reports and federal statements indicate the military will provide assessment and logistical support rather than replacing the large-scale trades work needed to repair individual homes.
For now, local leaders remain focused on assessing damage, prioritizing repairs to water and sewage systems, and coordinating the return of families when it is safe to do so.
