By Trevor Greyeyes
Peguis First Nation Real Estate Trust (PFNRET) has to be shut down, and a forensic audit done in the wake of the latest disaster that sees a possible one-million-dollar price tag to repair the building.
A month after it was first reported in Terra Indigena, CBC News wrote a story about the facility including a tour of the facility.
Now, I am in no way saying there is anything criminal going on here but let’s take a look at the situation.
The Peguis First Nation Real Estate Trust was created through a trust agreement signed on July 28, 2021.
PFNRET was established to acquire, invest in and manage Peguis First Nation’s off-reserve real estate assets. Its stated purpose is to produce stable, long-term revenue that can support housing and contribute to the financial independence of the community. Unlike the Surrender Trust and Treaty Land Entitlement Trust, PFNRET is focused primarily on real estate and related businesses.
In 2022, the Manitoba government awarded PFNRET one of the daycare projects financed under the joint federal-provincial childcare program.
The proposed Meadows daycare was designed as a 74-space facility serving the future development and the surrounding municipality.
According to PFNRET, the province was to pay the construction costs and transfer ownership of the completed building and surrounding improvements to the trust.
PFNRET would then provide the facility rent-free to an approved daycare operator for 15 years, after which rental revenue would flow to the trust.
Now, I am a little perturbed that CBC was actually given a tour of the building when Terra Indigena was never given the chance.
That $5.5-million, 74-space daycare built in East St. Paul for the Peguis First Nation Real Estate Trust was completed in 2024 but has never opened because the province claims a change in ownership of the Meadows property breached the operating agreement with Manitoba.
The province stopped funding after paying $3.3 million, while uncertainty over who legally owns the land left the building vacant and exposed to thieves, flooding and an estimated $1 million in damage.
Created 4 Me Early Learning Centre, which has 800 children on its waiting list, is urging the province and the RM of East St. Paul to resolve the dispute and open the facility.
And the worst part of it: there was no insurance on the building.
That building has been without utilities for over a year now at least and the basement is half filled with water, according to the CBC report.
Who is going to pay for repairing that building?
Oh, and it doesn’t stop there.
PFNRET says it purchased the 611–633 Wellington Crescent property for $350,000 in July 2022 and sold it eight months later for $2.8 million, reporting a profit of $1.83 million.
Where is the money from this project, and how was it invested, spent or distributed for the benefit of Peguis members?
PFNRET purchased the 183-acre Meadows property in 2021 using $10 million in Peguis treaty land entitlement funds and a further $5.5-million private loan.
After defaulting on that loan, the trust sold 75 per cent of the company controlling the property to a company owned by former adviser Andrew Marquess in exchange for a promise to pay $10 million over as many as seven years, leaving PFNRET with control of only about 16 acres.
How did Peguis go from investing $10 million in treaty settlement money to losing control of most of the property, and what guarantees exist that the promised $10 million will ever be paid?
The projects and financials are still available on the PFNRET website (https://peguisretrust.com/).
Pardon me. How long is this going to go on?