Fish merchant, businessman.
Born at Winnipeg on 18 May 1917 to Matrona “Martha” Wachniuk (1880-1976) and Pankraty J. Lazarenko (1874-1937), his entrepreneurial skills surfaced at an early age when he got involved in the fishing industry, buying and selling fish and working in the fish sheds for the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR.) He expanded his fish business and also worked with several other fish companies in Winnipeg. After a partnership with Jim Page at Canadian Fish Producers, he opened his own company, Northland Fisheries Limited, which dealt with buying and selling fish to companies in the United States and Canada. He opened a fish filleting facility on Gunnell Street in Winnipeg, and formed a partnership with the Manischewitz Company of New York to supply their requirements of carp, mullet, and whitefish for their specialty fish markets.
He then opened a fish processing facility at Savage Island (east of Lake Winnipeg, in Island Lake), which culminated in the formation of Northland Airlines Limited to transport fish to a base at Netley, at the southern tip of Lake Winnipeg. He used Canso aircraft that had the ability to land on water or runways. Small aircraft such as Norseman, Beaver, and Otter were used to take fishermen and supplies to outlying lakes for commercial fishing and to return to Savage Island for fish processing. Most of the people employed by him were of Indigenous background and lived in the areas of Garden Hill, St. Theresa Point, Wassagamach, and Red Sucker Lake.
Next, he entered into an agreement with the North West Company to transport perishable goods and gasoline from Winnipeg and Netley to their stores in northern Manitoba, and return with fish from Savage Island for distribution to the US. He opened Northland Wild Rice Limited to process wild rice, which grows in shallow waters of many of the lakes he fished. The processed and packaged rice was shipped to markets in Canada and the US.
Northland Freight and Forwarding was created to transport perishables, groceries, and bulk fuel to points on Lake Winnipeg such as Berens River, Poplar River, Big Black River, Warrens Landing, Norway House, and Rossville by freight boats. The MS Lady Canadian (later donated to the Selkirk Marine Museum), the MS Lady Northland (now in Kenora), the MS Keystone, and the MS Play Green all worked in conjunction with trucks going to Cross Lake. His fleet of tanker trucks supplied northern Manitoba communities with gasoline and diesel fuel over winter roads constructed by the provincial government.
The Manitoba Government was expanding the north, and aircraft runways were being constructed at most of the aboriginal communities. Lazarenko found it necessary to expand the airline with the purchase of DC3 aircraft with a capacity for 25 passengers or 5000 pounds of cargo. Passenger service was set up through the north as far as Thompson from Winnipeg. Northland Airlines bought control of Ilford Riverton Airlines and started passenger service to northern Ontario. Because of the expansion, Northland Airlines acquired the HS-748 aircraft that had a capacity for 46 passengers or 11,000 pounds of cargo. Around this time the company name changed to Air Manitoba. Upon establishing Northland Petroleum, he brought his sons, Phillip (1941-2002) and Richard (1945-2010), into the operations of the Northland companies, while his daughter, Sandra (1956-2021), managed the Wild Rice Company. And along the way, he nurtured friendly relationships with not only his business associates, but also the First Nations he employed and served. He was always willing to share his knowledge of the north and give a hand up, mentoring many along the way.
To recognize his contribution to aviation and associated facilities, he was honored as an Aviation Associated Pioneer by the Western Canada Aviation Museum.
On 26 August 1939, he married May Ethel Leigh (1919-1983) at Winnipeg, with whom he had three children. Entertaining family and friends at home, at the summer cottages on Lake Winnipeg, or at his winter retirement house at Palm Springs was a source of pride for him, and he regaled his guests with his stories about houseboats, float planes, plane crash survival, as well as with fireworks, great food, silly songs, and dreams and plans always in the making.
He died at Winnipeg on 6 October 2009 and was buried in the Elmwood Cemetery.
Birth registration [Petro Lazarenko], Manitoba Vital Statistics.
Marriage registration [Peter Lazarenko, Mae Ethel Leigh], Manitoba Vital Statistics.
Obituary [May Ethel Lazarenko], Winnipeg Free Press, 5 October 1983, page 62.
Obituary [Phillip Lazarenko], Winnipeg Free Press, 14 April 2002.
Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 10 October 2009.
Obituary [Richard Henry Lazarenko], Winnipeg Free Press, 13 March 2010.
Obituary [Sandra Mae Lazarenko], Winnipeg Free Press, 10 July 2021.
“Peter Michael Lazarenko,” Borys Family Tree, Ancestry.
This page was prepared by Lois Braun.
Page revised: 28 March 2025
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