This resulted in a loss of Indian reserve land in Lake St. Martin[citation needed].

This Portage Diversion brought water from the Assiniboine River to an entirely different watershed through digging a 29 km long channel to Lake Manitoba.

These disruptions decrease fish population and influence the surrounding settlements of Lake St. Martin (AAE Tech Services Inc. et al., 2016).

The Fairford Water Control Structure was opened to flood thousands of Indigenous people from several reserves.

The outflow from Lake St. Martin was greatly reduced due to ice blockages in the Dauphin River.

Without an environmental assessment, the major project of the Lake St. Martin Emergency Outlet Channel was constructed and began to operate on November 1, 2011 (Manitoba Minister of Conservation, 2011).

Chakraborty et al. states that "Canadian Indigenous communities bear significant financial, psychological, and social burdens associated with flooding, and they have been disproportionately affected by flood-related displacement" (2021, p. 821).

Due to the Fairford River structure the impacts on the ecosystem greatly reduced the fish population and the land could no longer be used for cattle raising (Westdal, 2013).

[citation needed] The Manitoban government decided to divert the water flow to Lake St. Martin First Nation to lessen the impact of flooding on Winnipeg and other non-Indigenous homes and farm lands (Thompson, 2015).

The flood damaged all housing and infrastructure at Lake St. Martin and most of Little Saskatchewan caused the need for intensive rebuilding.

In flooding Lake St. Martin the responsibility for financial compensation shifts from the province to the federal government for lands under their jurisdiction.

Indigenous reserves are at higher risk of flooding than non-Indigenous communities due to the federal government placing Indigenous reserves in swampy and other marginal lands, lack of infrastructure and adequate protection, such as ring dykes, and governments controlling water flows through diversions.

The province and Canadian government needs to reconcile their role in displacing First Nations through flooding and other means.