{"id":101397,"date":"2026-01-21T16:22:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T21:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/?p=101397"},"modified":"2026-01-21T16:22:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T21:22:10","slug":"bigstone-taking-over-chip-lake-rebuild","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/21\/bigstone-taking-over-chip-lake-rebuild\/","title":{"rendered":"Bigstone taking over Chip Lake rebuild"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By\u00a0Pearl Lorentzen Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Lakeside Leader At the end of May 2025, a wildfire burnt half of the buildings in Chipewyan Lake, north of Wabasca. This small community in the Boreal forest is in the midst of being transferred from an M.D. of Opportunity hamlet to a Bigstone Cree Nation reserve. Throughout the evacuation and the initial stages of the rebuild, the M.D. took the lead and worked closely with Bigstone. However, by the end of January the whole process will be transferred over to Bigstone. The change is because Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) has agreed to rebuild the burnt homes, M.D. CAO Chad Tullis told M.D. council at the January 12, 2026 M.D. council meeting. Therefore, Bigstone needs to be the local government heading the project. The&#8230; <\/p>\n<div class=\"pmpro\">\n<div class=\"pmpro_card pmpro_content_message\">\n<div class=\"pmpro_card_content\">This content is for Yearly Subscription, Yearly Subscription &#8211; Corporate, Print Subscription Only, and Canada Print and Online members only.<br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?action=register\">Register<\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"pmpro_card_actions pmpro_font-medium\">Already a member? <a href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Ftheturtleislandnews.com%2Findex.php%2F2026%2F01%2F21%2Fbigstone-taking-over-chip-lake-rebuild%2F\">Log in here<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By\u00a0Pearl Lorentzen Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Lakeside Leader At the end of May 2025, a wildfire burnt half of the buildings in Chipewyan Lake, north of Wabasca. This small community in the Boreal forest is in the midst of being transferred from an M.D. of Opportunity hamlet to a Bigstone Cree Nation reserve. Throughout the evacuation and the initial stages of the rebuild, the M.D. took the lead and worked closely with Bigstone. However, by the end of January the whole process will be transferred over to Bigstone. The change is because Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) has agreed to rebuild the burnt homes, M.D. CAO Chad Tullis told M.D. council at the January 12, 2026 M.D. council meeting. Therefore, Bigstone needs to be the local government heading the project. The... <\/p>\n<div class=\"pmpro\"><div class=\"pmpro_card pmpro_content_message\"><div class=\"pmpro_card_content\">This content is for Yearly Subscription, Yearly Subscription - Corporate, Print Subscription Only, and Canada Print and Online members only.<br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?action=register\">Register<\/a><\/div><div class=\"pmpro_card_actions pmpro_font-medium\">Already a member? <a href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Ftheturtleislandnews.com%2Findex.php%2F2026%2F01%2F21%2Fbigstone-taking-over-chip-lake-rebuild%2F\">Log in here<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"author":101363,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news","category-ticker","pmpro-level-required","pmpro-level-3","pmpro-level-2","pmpro-level-5","pmpro-level-4","pmpro-level-6","pmpro-level-7","pmpro-no-access"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Bigstone taking over Chip Lake rebuild - The Turtle Island News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/21\/bigstone-taking-over-chip-lake-rebuild\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bigstone taking over Chip Lake rebuild - The Turtle Island News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By\u00a0Pearl Lorentzen Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Lakeside Leader At the end of May 2025, a wildfire burnt half of the buildings in Chipewyan Lake, north of Wabasca. This small community in the Boreal forest is in the midst of being transferred from an M.D. of Opportunity hamlet to a Bigstone Cree Nation reserve. Throughout the evacuation and the initial stages of the rebuild, the M.D. took the lead and worked closely with Bigstone. However, by the end of January the whole process will be transferred over to Bigstone. The change is because Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) has agreed to rebuild the burnt homes, M.D. CAO Chad Tullis told M.D. council at the January 12, 2026 M.D. council meeting. Therefore, Bigstone needs to be the local government heading the project. 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