Peguis trust built daycare on $12.3M property more than 150 kilometres away from First Nation

A daycare owned by an organization created to benefit Peguis First Nation promises dozens of new daycare spots for families when it opens its doors — but not for the First Nation in Manitoba's Interlake region, which is in dire need of child care.

Instead, the project, touting 74 new spaces for children, was built in East St. Paul, northeast of Winnipeg and more than 150 kilometres south of Peguis.

"Why wouldn't you bring it to Peguis here and build it here, when we need it here?" said Bruce Sinclair, a Peguis elder who is concerned by lack of daycare spots on the First Nation.

The daycare, which is still not operational, is built on part of a plot of land that was formerly a private golf course called The Meadows in East St. Paul.

The 75-hectare parcel of land was purchased in 2021 by the Peguis First Nation Real Estate Trust, an arm's-length entity formed to acquire real estate for investment and housing for the benefit of band members, according to its founding documents.

The Peguis daycare in East St. Paul is part of a project initiated by Manitoba's former Progressive Conservative government to build more than two dozen daycares. The current NDP government has asked the province's auditor general to review whether that project followed procurement rules.

It's unclear when the East St. Paul daycare will open its doors. With the project experiencing "significant delays," according to Education Minister Tracy Schmidt, funding for the East St. Paul project stopped flowing in November 2024 in order to complete a review. 

"We discovered some, what I would call, irregularities in the administration of the contract," Schmidt said at a press conference at the Manitoba Legislature near the end of April.

In addition to the education department's concerns, the builder filed a lien for $2.4 million against the property.

The trust's former chair says the daycare building is finished and the province is holding up the opening. 

"It is completed and ready for occupancy. We just need the province to finalize the payment to [the builder] to get it operational," said Greg Stevenson, who was the chair of the Peguis trust from July 2021 until early January 2025.

Initially, the Peguis First Nation Real Estate Trust wanted to build a 2,000-home mixed-use development on the former Meadows golf course in East St. Paul, combining housing with commercial businesses.

With guidance from Winnipeg developer Andrew Marquess, the trust purchased the former course for $12.3 million in 2021.

The trust had been set up less than a month earlier. Former Peguis chief Glenn Hudson and the band council at the time appointed its initial five trustees, who were replaced by an entirely new board in January.