Manitoba's boundaries encompass an area of 65 million hectares consisting of 54.8 million hectares of land and 10.2 million hectares of water. The landscape varies from prairie grassland in the south, through to broadleaf, mixed wood and boreal forest, to tundra in the north. Lake Winnipeg, Lake Manitoba and Lake Winnipegosis cover much of the areas in central Manitoba. Lake Winnipeg covers 2.4 million hectares and is the largest lake in Manitoba. It is also the 12th largest freshwater lake in the world.
Manitoba's provincial Crown lands comprise approximately 40.5 million hectares. The Branch is responsible for provincial and regional level management and control of provincial Crown lands that are governed under Branch functions also include
Land Operations, Management and Planning
Responsible for managing Crown land on a provincial scale and for providing assistance and direction for the delivery of services through five regional offices by Regional Land Managers (RLM). The branch develops and ensures departmental policies and positions on various Crown land use and applications are applied. It is responsible for approving conditions for the use of Crown land and the subsequent management of conditions.
Provides expert support to the public, Indigenous communities, the Minister, executive and provincial staff on sensitive and complex matters related to Crown land and Crown land property transactions.
Ensures the review of Crown land applications takes into consideration potential adverse effects on indigenous rights including community engagement as appropriate. Acts as lead in Crown-Indigenous consultations for a variety of major projects.
Ensures ongoing and process specific continual improvement methodologies are used to identify services and processes for improvements related to Crown land management.
Engages in the province's Red Tape Reduction Initiative. Completed the baseline regulatory requirement count for our Division to assist in streamlining government operations in relation to regulatory requirements.