Pimicikamak Cree Nation has filed a proposed class-action lawsuit against Manitoba Hydro, the province of Manitoba, and the federal government over a catastrophic winter power outage that began on December 28, 2025.
The outage lasted approximately 110 hours, until January 2, 2026, forcing more than 4,000 of the northern community's 8,000 residents to evacuate as temperatures plunged.
>>> Argonaut Games Announces Croc 2 Remaster for Modern Consoles
Sub-zero conditions caused severe infrastructure damage, including frozen water systems, sewer backups, burst pipes, and widespread mold contamination.
The lawsuit states that 180 homes were left uninhabitable, 35 were ruined beyond repair, and the local water treatment plant was rendered inoperable.
More than six months after power was restored, roughly 650 displaced community members remain in hotels across Thompson, Brandon, and Winnipeg, awaiting home repairs or replacements.
Allegations of Negligence and Ignored Warnings
The lawsuit accuses the utility and government defendants of negligence and breach of fiduciary duty, claiming they ignored repeated warnings between 2018 and 2025 about the vulnerability of the sole power line serving the remote reserve from the Jenpeg generating station.
Pimicikamak leaders had repeatedly requested system redundancies, including backup generators and a secondary transmission line along accessible highways, to prevent winter supply failures.
The statement of claim also alleges that human errors by Manitoba Hydro delayed service restoration, such as dispatching repair crews to incorrect map locations and improperly re-energizing electrical grid segments during the crisis.
Chief David Monias said during a news conference that the emergency severely impacted the community long after electricity returned.
