The MWF has written the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) urging them to remove the illegal barrier erected by Bloodvein First Nation (BFN) to prevent non-indigenous licensed hunters from accessing a vast area of public land on the east side of Lake Winnipeg.
To appreciate the seriousness of this blockade, it is important to understand the different designations of land that make up our province. Manitoba’s total land area of about 65 million hectares (ha) is made up of:
- Reserve land under the sole control of First Nations: 552,500 ha
- Treaty Land Entitlement being added to reserve lands: 579,510 ha
- National Parks: 1.4 million ha
- Private lands: 8.8 million ha
- Provincial Crown Lands (including provincial parks): 54 million ha
Our public Provincial Crown Lands, held by the province on behalf of all Manitobans, make up 83% of our province.
While the MWF acknowledges BFN’s jurisdiction over its designated reserve land of approximately 1,600 ha, this blockade affects a much larger area of provincial Crown Land that is legally open to all Manitobans. This Crown Land is described in the Provincial Government’s 2025 Manitoba Hunting Guide (page 14):
Hunting on Public Land
Manitoba hunters are fortunate to have hunting opportunities available on millions of hectares of wildlife management areas (WMAs), provincial forests, some provincial parks, and other undesignated Crown lands.
Again, we call on the provincial government and the RCMP to enforce the law and maintain access to our provincial Crown land for all Manitobans.
