Mike Bruneau, owner of Misty Lake Lodge & Conference Centre in Gimli, Manitoba, who said he was forced to close his hotel because Ottawa owes him $3 million in unpaid bills, has apparently found a buyer for the controversial resort. But it is for a lot less than it was worth a few years ago, he said.
In a candid interview with Western Investor – Bruneau pulled his car to side of a Manitoba highway to talk – the owner detailed his three-year battle with federal and aboriginal bureaucrats that cost him a 198-unit hotel that was once a go-to destination for conferences and events.
Bruneau said he's still owed $3 million for feeding and housing scores of people who were displaced by the 2011 Winnipeg-area flood.
The Misty was recruited to house aboriginal flood evacuees but the guests damaged rooms and ran up high food and liquor expenses, which Bruneau said has yet to be fully compensated for. The flood refugees stayed in the hotel for two and a half years.
“They didn't pay my bills, so I couldn't go back to doing weddings and conferences, the kind of stuff I used to do,” Bruneau said. Finally, he said, he had to shut the lodge down and renovate it. “We had to throw out the carpets, all the bedding,” he said.
The Manitoba Association of Native Firefighters had been given millions to care for evacuees, but Bruneau said the group stopped paying him when he accused it publicly of squandering money.
Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada is auditing the association's handling of the prolonged evacuation.
Bruneau said he received $2 million in compensation from Aboriginal Affairs last year and is hopeful that the remaining bills will be paid. “The federal government said it paid the MANFF, but MANFF never paid me,” Bruneau said.
The evacuees were displaced from reserves around the province in 2011 and many haven't been able to return. They have been scattered around Winnipeg and other parts of the province while officials try to find new and long-term housing.
The Manitoba Association of Native Firefighters responded to a Canadian Press request for comment with a one-line statement. "MANFF will not be discussing Misty Lake Lodge within the press," it said.
Bruneau said he has received an offer for the hotel and believes it is sold but “the deal is not finalized yet.”
The offer, he said, is far below the $8 million he was offered for the Misty Lake Lodge four years ago, before the floods and his long nightmare began.
Frank O'Brien, Western Investor
