Juno News - October 30, 2026


Manitoba NDP Minister accused of $250K offer in First Nations dispute

European Union REJECTS Canada’s associate membership

Episode Stats


Length

2 minutes

Words per minute

173.29

Word count

362

Sentence count

—


Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
00:00:00.000 Did a Manitoba NDP cabinet minister try to pressure a First Nation to move a highway
00:00:04.840 checkpoint by discussing up to a quarter million dollars in government funding? That's the
00:00:09.700 allegation at the center of a growing political controversy involving Manitoba Premier Wabkanu's
00:00:14.580 government. Bloodvane River First Nation Chief Lisa Young says Natural Resources Minister Ian
00:00:19.860 Bushey discussed up to $250,000 in economic development funding while the province was
00:00:26.340 pushing her community to relocate a checkpoint off of rice river road young told the winnipeg free
00:00:31.940 press that she felt pushed into a corner and she felt like she was being bribed bushy of course
00:00:36.900 denies offering the bribe he does say that the conversation was about existing economic
00:00:41.620 development programs and that no new funding was offered in exchange for moving the checkpoint
00:00:46.260 but here's where things get interesting bushy acknowledged that the checkpoint
00:00:50.340 and new potential funding were discussed in the same conversation and according to young
00:00:54.900 bushy actually told her that he wasn't bribing her bushy did confirm making that specific comment
00:01:00.980 but he says he was just trying to lighten the mood now a little bit of background here for you guys
00:01:05.300 blood vein they established this specific checkpoint to prevent drugs and alcohol
00:01:09.540 from entering their community however after it was moved onto a provincial highway it became
00:01:14.900 a source of controversy when licensed hunters were denied access to crown land the province
00:01:19.860 ordered the checkpoint relocated while blood vein has raised concerns about community safety
00:01:24.660 moose conservation and treaty rights manitoba's progressive conservatives have since accused
00:01:29.700 canoe's government of trying to use taxpayer dollars to secure access to a public highway
00:01:34.740 canoe has rejected those accusations and this story has now reached ottawa where conservative
00:01:39.780 mp james bazan has raised the allegations in the house of commons now to be clear there's no
00:01:45.860 established evidence in the public reporting that a 250 000 payment was ever made but the central
00:01:52.660 question does remain was this simply a conversation about government funding programs or was that
00:01:58.420 funding being used as leverage to pressure a first nation into removing its checkpoint
00:02:03.380 For Juno News, I'm Ty Sylvester.