A row of sandbags along Front St. to keep back the rising water of the upper Rainy River. June 2022. Image: Randy Thoms

The MP for Thunder Bay-Rainy River would like to see a complete review of the flooding that impacted the Lake of the Woods and Rainy Lake basins last year.

Several communities and property owners suffered losses because of record-breaking water levels in the spring and summer.

Levels on Rainy Lake exceeded the levels experienced in 1950.

Marcus Powlowski would like to see if anything can be done to mitigate future severe flooding events.

“This is going to be difficult/expensive if we’re going to do it ,and I don’t even know what can be done,” says Powlowski.
Powlowski has already discussed the idea with government officials.

“I’ve been talking to and working with Terry Duguid, who is one of the MPs in the Parliamentary Secretary for Environment, about initiating something there, just to look at the whole system and what we can do.”

Members of the International Joint Commission and its Rainy-Lake of the Woods Watershed Board toured the area and met with residents impacted.

One of the suggestions was getting more volunteers to record and provide snowpack data to help with future operational decisions.