Interlake tribal council withdraws from 2 Manitoba sports groups, cites lack of supports for young athletes

The chair of a tribal council representing seven First Nations communities in Manitoba's Interlake region says his group has received more financial support from a charity associated with the Toronto Blue Jays than it has from two major provincial sports organizations.

The Interlake Reserves Tribal Council withdrew from Sport Manitoba and Manitoba Aboriginal Sports and Recreation Council, citing frustration with both organizations and saying both have paid poor attention to the needs of their athletes and communities, a news release said Thursday.

The tribal council represents seven First Nations communities about 190 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg, between Lake Winnipeg and Lake Manitoba: Kinonjeoshtegon, Peguis, Lake Manitoba, Pinaymootang, Little Saskatchewan, Lake St. Martin and Dauphin River.

Lake Manitoba First Nation Chief Cornell McLean, who chairs the tribal council, says the two sports organizations have shown a lack of accountability when it comes to supporting athletes from their communities.

"There's no relationship," he told CBC News on Thursday.

The tribal council has received more financial support from the Toronto-based Jays Care Foundation — which helped create a recreational softball league for IRTC's seven communities — than it has from the two sporting organizations, McLean said.

"The main priority here for us is that we want to be included, not excluded, from Sport Manitoba," he said.

A spokesperson for Sport Manitoba declined to comment on this story.

The Manitoba Aboriginal Sports and Recreation Council has not yet responded to CBC's requests for comment.

The organization, also known as MASRC, aims to connect Manitoba's sports sector with Indigenous communities in the province in order to develop sustainable programs that enhance sporting and recreational opportunities for Indigenous people in Manitoba, its website states.

Rural Interlake 'forgotten about'

Many of the communities represented by the Interlake Reserves Tribal Council were impacted by severe flooding in 2011, which forced thousands of people from their homes and often left few play options for children and youth, said Karl Zadnik, CEO of the tribal council.

The tribal council has run free basketball training camps for children and youth of its member communities over the last six years, but neither Sport Manitoba nor MASRC have financially supported them, despite the council's efforts to secure funding, Zadnik said.

"Our requests have fallen on deaf ears," he told CBC News.

The tribal council will re-evaluate how sports and recreation are handled within its communities and explore alternative ways of supporting athletes, the news release said.

"We're better off taking care of our own sporting dollars [and] initiatives housed within our own communities, as it seems that the rural area of the Interlake region is forgotten about," said Zadnik.

Zadnik says the tribal council plans to speak with Sport Canada representatives and the federal sport minister about the issue following the federal election later this month.

Both Zadnik and McLean said they want to see the two Manitoba sporting organizations try to identify service gaps alongside the tribal council.

Zadnik said the tribal council would ultimately like to work on a solution with both organizations.

"If they wanted to change their tune and how they approach us, we'd be willing to sit down with Sport Manitoba and MASRC and figure out a path forward, so that our people are not neglected any further."