Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew says the province has entered the third of a five step process of searching the Prairie Green Landfill for the remains of two First Nations women.
The privately-owned landfill is located just outside of Winnipeg.
At a news conference on the site, Kinew was joined by the Harris and Myran families, Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs Acting Grand Chief Betsy Kennedy and a number of supporters.
According to the premier, the third stage of the search involves excavating materials from the top layer, constructing the search facility and extending a hydro line to service the site.
“This pad that we are standing on is built on successive layers of rock and aggregate that has been designed to provide the highest environmental standards and protection for this area and also to ensure the health and safety of all the people who are going to be working here,” Kinew said.
Last week, materials were excavated from the area believed to hold the remains of Marcedes Myran and Morgan Harris.
An effort to assemble a search team is well underway. Project lead Amna Mackin said they’ve received around 200 applications and expect to make offers soon.
“The structure of the search operations was guided under anthropologist and director Emily Holland and in partnership with the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs,” Mackin said. “We are recruiting three levels of search technicians.”
The search is comprised of two teams with 12 full-time workers per group, Mackin said.
The province said it’s taking a families-first approach to hiring. Morgan Harris’ oldest daughter, Cambria, is part of the committee that oversees recruitment.
“We are overwhelmed with the sheer compassion of individuals we are meeting along the way, the compassion that people share as we sit through these interviews, interviewing people for the search,” Harris said.
Both her mother and Myran were killed in May 2022 by serial killer Jeremy Skibicki.
In August, he was found guilty of four counts of first-degree murder. He was sentenced to life in prison for the killings of Rebecca Contois, Myran, Harris and an unidentified person given the name Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe, or Buffalo Woman.
The trial revealed how Harris and Myran’s remains ended up at the Prairie Green Landfill.
Harris’ cousin, Melissa Robinson, said that her family and the Myrans aren’t the only families they’re doing this for.
“When we go in we are going in for everybody,” Robinson said. “When you look at the numbers of MMIWG2S just here alone in our city, and I am almost certain, and I am sure most of you know as well, we are certainly going to be finding more than just who we are going in looking for.”
Kinew said getting to this point of the search has been a “huge operation”.
“There is also a hydro transmission line here that was specifically constructed to bring power to this site,” Kinew said. “There is a new road that was built to provide additional access to this site. You have the ready-to-move home that is going to be the cultural space for the families.”
The province also reconfirmed their plans to manually search the landfill.
Initially, the Winnipeg police and the former Progressive Conservative government under premier Heather Stephenson rejected calls to search the Prairie Green Landfill, citing asbestos, toxic material and costs.
After being elected last year, the NDP government committed $20 million to the search.
Stage four–the physical search of the site–is expected to begin in early December.
With files from Tiar Wheatle and The Canadian Press.
