Flying Dust First Nation’s dream of future economic development along the north side of Highway 55 (Railway Avenue) is one step closer to becoming a reality. Monday afternoon (June 3), a special groundbreaking ceremony was held at the site, an event that attracted a large crowd of Flying Dust leaders, elders, dignitaries and supporters from both Flying Dust First Nation and the neighbouring community of Meadow Lake.

“We’re going to be doing some commercial development here,” remarked Flying Dust First Nation chief Tyson Bear. “There will be water and sewer going in here soon. This has been a dream project that’s been going on since prior to 1992 when (then Flying Dust) chief Richard Gladue put a caveat on the land here. He knew this land was Flying Dust land at one time and the railway was moving out, so he put a caveat on it to freeze the land. This way it wasn’t sold on us. He had a vision, he had a goal, and, since then, every leader has always shared that goal – to get back this land and to develop it, and here we are today. Water and sewer will be going in, a water treatment plant will be going up and there are about 10 tenants who want to move on to Flying Dust land.”

Bear went on to say Flying Dust is highly interested in providing services that will benefit the community of Meadow Lake as well as Flying Dust by creating jobs, and increasing cash flow through the local economy. According to billboards erected along Railway Avenue last year, when completed, the new commercial development area will include a mall, three strip malls, offices, a conference centre, hotel, fitness centre, two restaurants, a health clinic, drug store, grocery store, art gallery, several retail outlets, a liquor store and more.

“There’s a lot of things we’ve been talking about,” Bear added. “We’ve been talking about a hotel and conference centre, Canadian Tire is sitting there, a dollar store and possibly another grocery store – a third one so we can get some decent prices. It’s all about creating opportunities for the community, and to make Meadow Lake and area a go-to place. Traffic won’t flow through here anymore, it will stop here. This has been the goal for many years.” Before Flying Dust was able to get to the point where it could host this week’s groundbreaking, a lot of work went in to preparing the land to the point where development would even be possible. An environmental remediation process had to take place first, a project in itself that took several years to complete.

“Now that’s all down, and we received some assistance from Indigenous Services Canada to put the water and sewer in the ground,” Bear said. “We’re very grateful for that. It’s been a long time in coming – 95 years in the making because we lost this land in 1930. It’s been 95 years of lost opportunities we’re going to make a reality in the next several months. I look forward to great things.”