On July 13, CUPE 500, representing municipal staff at the Brady Road Resource Management Facility, including the landfill and 4R Winnipeg Depot in Winnipeg, provided a letter of support to the organizers and families who are calling for a search for MMIWG2S at the site.

In our July 13 message we expressed that we are deeply concerned with the City and Province’s inability to provide support and closure for families of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQI+ members of the community.

CUPE believes that the Brady site should be thoroughly searched, and we are willing to work with the City and other authorities to provide support and expertise to any organization conducting a search. 

We have been and are willing to work with the City on any use or redeployment of current staff at the Brady site for the duration of any search. Any search conducted at the Brady site should be conducted by professionals in the field of searching for missing persons, and searchers must be provided appropriate PPE and training, as outlined in the feasibility study.

Premier Stefanson’s remarks that safety concerns prohibit a search are false: there is no reason this cannot be done.

CUPE supports the right for demonstrators to peacefully protest at the site, and we urge the City to ensure that no CUPE member is asked to intervene in any demonstrations.

CUPE 500 is committed to work with the City to develop a plan to ensure future use of the Brady site accommodates any searches, should they be necessary. This includes greater public control and oversight over how solid waste is collected and deposited (currently garbage collection in Winnipeg is done by private companies), a grid system for deposits, better monitoring of the fleet, and the development of an action plan for the future.

CUPE believes that action is more important than words, and we expect to be at the table where we can offer our expertise at the site, as well as contribute to future plans to ensure searches can be done expediently.

We thank the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs and the families of MMIWG2S for receiving our correspondence and acknowledging our support at the July 17 press conference that highlighted the feasibility of the search.

As Canada’s largest union, representing over 715,000 workers across the country including more than 37,000 throughout Manitoba, CUPE stands with AMC and families of MMIWG2S and supports calls to have the Prairie Green Landfill and the Brady site searched immediately.

Gord Delbridge, President, CUPE Local 500
Gina McKay, President, CUPE Manitoba
Mark Hancock, National President, CUPE