No Running Water

Solve reserves’ water crisis, don’t squabble, Rae urges

By Mary Agnes Welch 2 minute read Saturday, May. 12, 2012

OTTAWA and the province must set aside jurisdictional squabbles and fix the clean-water crisis that plagues remote reserves, federal Liberal Leader Bob Rae said Friday.

"You can't let these things descend into jurisdictional and constitutional battles. Every Canadian should have access to running water," Rae said. "The two governments have to get their act together and get it done."

Along with Manitoba Liberal Leader Jon Gerrard, Rae travelled to St. Theresa Point Friday afternoon to visit homes with no proper plumbing and meet with the chief and council.

St. Theresa Point is one of four reserves around Island Lake, where most of the province's 1,400 homes without modern sanitation are located.

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Price tag for running water, toilets $29M

By Mary Agnes Welch 5 minute read Preview

Price tag for running water, toilets $29M

By Mary Agnes Welch 5 minute read Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2011

It would cost $29 million -- about one-tenth the price of Winnipeg's new state-of-the-art water treatment plant -- to provide running water and flush toilets to thousands of northern Manitobans living in Third World conditions.

A just-completed community assessment by the Island Lake Tribal Council reports there are about 950 homes on the region's four remote reserves where residents use slop pails or latrines instead of modern toilets.

The figure is starker than the original estimate, which pegged the number at about 800.

More than 1,000 homes need renovations to rough-in plumbing and install taps and toilets in rudimentary washrooms where slop pails and basins now sit. Or, the houses need new additions built to accommodate sinks, tubs and toilets. Most of those homes also need electrical upgrades to run a hot water tank.

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Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2011

JOE BRYKSA / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
The bathroom facilities of Maurice N. Harper in Wasagamack First Nation. They live in a home with no running water and have to use a slop pail.

Feds, province agree to bring running water to Island Lake

By Mia Rabson 3 minute read Preview

Feds, province agree to bring running water to Island Lake

By Mia Rabson 3 minute read Saturday, Dec. 17, 2011

OTTAWA -- The provincial and federal governments agreed Friday to a joint program to give running water to homes in the Island Lake region of Manitoba.

However, there is still no dollar figure attached nor a timeline for completing the project.

Manitoba Aboriginal Affairs Minister Eric Robinson and federal Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan met in Ottawa on Friday, mainly to discuss the Island Lake water crisis and hammer out a plan to fix it together.

"It was one of the most productive meetings I have had with the federal government in a long time," said Robinson.

Read
Saturday, Dec. 17, 2011

OTTAWA -- The provincial and federal governments agreed Friday to a joint program to give running water to homes in the Island Lake region of Manitoba.

However, there is still no dollar figure attached nor a timeline for completing the project.

Manitoba Aboriginal Affairs Minister Eric Robinson and federal Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan met in Ottawa on Friday, mainly to discuss the Island Lake water crisis and hammer out a plan to fix it together.

"It was one of the most productive meetings I have had with the federal government in a long time," said Robinson.

Ottawa pledges funding to Island Lake

No Running Water 4 minute read Preview

Ottawa pledges funding to Island Lake

No Running Water 4 minute read Friday, Dec. 16, 2011

OTTAWA -- One hundred homes in Island Lake will get indoor taps and toilets in 2012 as part of a new federal commitment to the remote Manitoba region.

The retrofits are part of the first instalment of $5.5 million promised by Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan toward ensuring everyone in the four reserves that make up Island Lake gets access to clean, running water.

The funding will also be used to buy four new water trucks, five new sewage trucks and materials to build garages to store them.

More than half the homes in the four communities -- Garden Hill, St. Theresa Point, Wasagamack and Red Sucker Lake -- have no indoor plumbing. It means several thousand people rely on water toted in pails from community water pipes and local lakes, sometimes walking several kilometres with buckets.

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Friday, Dec. 16, 2011

JOE BRYKSA / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS ARCHIVES
A man hauls lake water at Red Sucker Lake First Nation. Ottawa and aboriginal leaders are hoping such scenes become less common in northern communities.

Water woes behind H1N1

By Mary Agnes Welch 4 minute read Preview

Water woes behind H1N1

By Mary Agnes Welch 4 minute read Thursday, Dec. 15, 2011

At the height of the H1N1 flu pandemic's first wave, an unusually large cluster of victims lived in one small, isolated Manitoba reserve where most homes don't have running water.

St. Theresa Point First Nation had a wave of 175 cases of likely or confirmed H1N1 in the spring of 2009, according to a study kept secret by Health Canada until now.

"It is likely that one contributing factor to this outbreak was the lack of running water in homes," wrote Public Health Agency of Canada epidemiologist Sue Pollock. "Without running water in the home, basic hygiene practices become a challenge, especially when the standpipe (communal tap) system is not easily accessible."

Not only could residents not wash their hands at home, the communal taps that serve the reserve may have been a nexus for H1N1 germs.

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Thursday, Dec. 15, 2011

JOE BRYKSA/WINNIPEG FREE PRESS archives
The handle of the communal tap at St.Theresa Point First Nation was cited as a possible instrument for the spread of the H1N1 virus in the spring of 2009.

Public shock, anger over issue evaporate

By Mary Agnes Welch 5 minute read Preview

Public shock, anger over issue evaporate

By Mary Agnes Welch 5 minute read Saturday, Nov. 5, 2011

WHERE’S the outrage?

It’s been a year since the Winnipeg Free Press first highlighted the damage to health and human dignity caused by the lack of running water in 1,400 First Nations homes. The series of stories spawned hundreds of emails, online comments and letters to the editor, many asking what action average people could take to solve the problem.

But since then, a small handful of advocacy campaigns have largely failed to galvanize public opinion, few charitable organizations have stepped up to tackle the problem and the federal government is under no sustained pressure to provide essential services to First Nations mired in Third World conditions

“All that energy and public attention just dissipated,” said Laurel Gardiner, director of the Manitoba office of the Frontiers Foundation, an aboriginal charitable agency that’s piloting a home retrofit program in Island Lake.

Read
Saturday, Nov. 5, 2011

WHERE’S the outrage?

It’s been a year since the Winnipeg Free Press first highlighted the damage to health and human dignity caused by the lack of running water in 1,400 First Nations homes. The series of stories spawned hundreds of emails, online comments and letters to the editor, many asking what action average people could take to solve the problem.

But since then, a small handful of advocacy campaigns have largely failed to galvanize public opinion, few charitable organizations have stepped up to tackle the problem and the federal government is under no sustained pressure to provide essential services to First Nations mired in Third World conditions

“All that energy and public attention just dissipated,” said Laurel Gardiner, director of the Manitoba office of the Frontiers Foundation, an aboriginal charitable agency that’s piloting a home retrofit program in Island Lake.

Dutch device may fix water problems

By Mary Agnes Welch 4 minute read Preview

Dutch device may fix water problems

By Mary Agnes Welch 4 minute read Saturday, Nov. 5, 2011

A new water-treatment system the size of a big fridge could be the answer to First Nations' water woes.

The Manitoba government just flipped the switch last week on a pilot project in Seymourville near Hollow Water First Nation on the banks of Lake Winnipeg. The province is testing a Dutch-made water-treatment system that uses new membrane technology instead of chemicals to treat drinking water. It's dramatically cheaper than traditional plants, requires far less maintenance and can be installed in a matter of hours. The technology is already commonly used in places like Haiti and Panama and even near Thunder Bay.

Consultant Tom Klos, who pitched the project to the province over the summer, says it could also easily be used in First Nations where thousands of people don't have indoor plumbing and where 16 aging water-treatment plants were recently rated a "high risk" to human health.

"We can solve their problems right away," said Klos, who first learned about the treatment system while working overseas as part of the Dutch diplomatic corps. "When you see this machine, you think, 'Is that all?' Yup, that's all."

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Saturday, Nov. 5, 2011

WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS ARCHIVES
Hollow Water First Nation could see a solution to its water problems develop in the nearby community of Seymourville.

Lottery for a life

By Mary Agnes Welch 7 minute read Preview

Lottery for a life

By Mary Agnes Welch 7 minute read Saturday, Nov. 5, 2011

ST. THERESA POINT -- Zach Harper waited 75 years for a house with running water and a flush toilet.

One week after Harper got it, he died.

Asked last year whether he believed the federal government would ever fund proper plumbing for him, the widower was skeptical.

"He'll ask God that question," said his son-in-law Geordie Rae, translating the elder's Oji-Cree.

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Saturday, Nov. 5, 2011

Zach Harper waited 75 years to live in a house with running water. He died a week after his family home at St. Theresa Point First Nation was retrofitted to include running water, a kitchen sink and a proper bathroom.

Reserves to get upgrade

By Mary Agnes Welch 5 minute read Preview

Reserves to get upgrade

By Mary Agnes Welch 5 minute read Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2011

Nine First Nations with the diciest drinking water will get upgrades to their treatment plants and pipes over the next four years -- good news for a province plagued with water woes.

Anna Fontaine, Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada's regional director for Manitoba, says nine bands, such as Hollow Water and Peguis First Nations, that have "high-risk" water systems will see cash for upgrades to ensure their drinking water doesn't make band members sick.

"Those aren't the only ones that are being done," Fontaine said. "Those are just the ones that are high-risk."

The move follows a damning federal report released in July that assessed every water and sewage treatment system on Canadian reserves and found nearly 40 per cent of water plants were so troubled they posed a high risk to human health.

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Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2011

JOE BRYKSA / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
Anna Fontaine, of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development, says nine Manitoba First Nations will see their water and sewage systems improved over four years.

Misery and indifference

By Mary Agnes Welch 6 minute read Preview

Misery and indifference

By Mary Agnes Welch 6 minute read Saturday, Oct. 22, 2011

WASAGAMACK -- Richard Andrews is a man of few words and a fan of understatement.

Standing in the gloom of his sagging trailer, he surveys the muddy floor, the goopy flypaper dangling from the kitchen ceiling, the piles of dirty clothes and the dishes stacked in a sink with no faucet. Graffiti and children's scribbles cover what remains of the walls, around holes that allow pink insulation to peek out. It's freezing in the winter, mouldy when the furnace kicks in and worse than even the slummiest apartment in Winnipeg.

"This place should be condemned already," Andrews says with a shrug.

Andrews lives, often with five other adults and his seven or eight grandchildren in what is likely the most squalid home on the reserve with the most pressing sanitation problems in the province. There is no running water to wash clothes, bathe the gaggle of muddy toddlers, do dishes or keep the floors clean. The family shares a slop pail, lined with a garbage bag, in what passes for a bathroom.

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Saturday, Oct. 22, 2011

A grandson plays in Richard Andrews' squalid trailer: 'This place should be condemned already.'

Health effects

4 minute read Preview

Health effects

4 minute read Saturday, Oct. 22, 2011

11

RESPIRATORY INFECTIONS

You know the wintertime flu-prevention mantra: Wash your hands to prevent sickness. But that's not easy when you have no running water and struggle to conserve what little drinking water you haul in daily from the communal tap. Regular flu doesn't sounds so bad, but hundreds of people from St. Theresa Point got sick with H1N1 in that epidemic's first wave in 2009. Federal public health officials conducted a potentially damning epidemiological study into that outbreak, but Health Canada has refused for 18 months to release it, denying an access to information request. The federal information commissioner is investigating.

In addition to the flu, other respiratory ailments exacerbated by poor sanitation can be just as deadly, such as pneumonia or whooping cough. In the spring of 2010, there was an outbreak of whooping cough in northern First Nations, many of which have no running water.

Read
Saturday, Oct. 22, 2011

11

RESPIRATORY INFECTIONS

You know the wintertime flu-prevention mantra: Wash your hands to prevent sickness. But that's not easy when you have no running water and struggle to conserve what little drinking water you haul in daily from the communal tap. Regular flu doesn't sounds so bad, but hundreds of people from St. Theresa Point got sick with H1N1 in that epidemic's first wave in 2009. Federal public health officials conducted a potentially damning epidemiological study into that outbreak, but Health Canada has refused for 18 months to release it, denying an access to information request. The federal information commissioner is investigating.

In addition to the flu, other respiratory ailments exacerbated by poor sanitation can be just as deadly, such as pneumonia or whooping cough. In the spring of 2010, there was an outbreak of whooping cough in northern First Nations, many of which have no running water.

Easy to judge, difficult to escape

By Mary Agnes Welch / My Opinion 6 minute read Preview

Easy to judge, difficult to escape

By Mary Agnes Welch / My Opinion 6 minute read Saturday, Oct. 22, 2011

When we stepped into Richard Andrews' home in Wasagamack, we had only one question: Why the hell are you living here?

For Free Press photojournalist Joe Bryksa, who has visited two dozen homes without running water all across this province, it was the worst he'd seen. Dirty clothes piled everywhere, floors gritty with mud, window frames crusted with mould. Most walls were covered with scribbles, and every piece of furniture looked like something left beside a dumpster.

There are six adults and seven kids under the age of nine who live, off-and-on, in the old trailer, with no indoor toilet or running water. A few of the toddlers were so caked with mud I, to my own shame, paused for a second before lifting one up to help him onto a rickety porch in a yard strewn with garbage.

Why would anyone allow their children to live in a home like this? Why not pay for a water tank or a septic field? Or find another house? Or move to Winnipeg? Or Thompson?

Read
Saturday, Oct. 22, 2011

Up to seven kids at a time live in Richard Andrews' derelict home. Why do people put up with such surroundings? The answers are complicated, say experts.

No Running Water

7 minute read Preview

No Running Water

7 minute read Saturday, Oct. 22, 2011

THEN1995

"In some First Nations communities in rural and northern Manitoba, inadequate water supplies have increased the risk for communicable disease... Besides the burden of illness on these communities, all Manitobans bear the medical costs and the loss of productivity associated with preventable diseases. Consultation is under way to ensure the provision of a clean, abundant water supply in these communities."

-- 1995 State of the Environment report, Manitoba Conservation

2001

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Saturday, Oct. 22, 2011

THEN1995

"In some First Nations communities in rural and northern Manitoba, inadequate water supplies have increased the risk for communicable disease... Besides the burden of illness on these communities, all Manitobans bear the medical costs and the loss of productivity associated with preventable diseases. Consultation is under way to ensure the provision of a clean, abundant water supply in these communities."

-- 1995 State of the Environment report, Manitoba Conservation

2001

Degrading third-world conditions one more hurdle for disabled man on reserve

By Mary Agnes Welch 7 minute read Preview

Degrading third-world conditions one more hurdle for disabled man on reserve

By Mary Agnes Welch 7 minute read Saturday, Oct. 22, 2011

ST. THERESA POINT -- A little whistle means Kevin Taylor has managed to hoist himself over the slop pail by himself and doesn't need his mother's help.

Taylor, a shy 30-year-old who has cerebral palsy and can't walk on his own, has a few bathroom options in his St. Theresa Point home, and they're all a humiliating hassle.

He can use his crutches to get from his perch on the living room sofa to the small room that serves as the bathroom. That's where the new slop pail is parked under the chair-like commode, near the plastic basin that serves as a makeshift sink. If Taylor's in a hurry, though, he usually drags his body down the hall in a scooching motion he's perfected and heaves himself up onto the commode.

 

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Saturday, Oct. 22, 2011

Alice Taylor with her son Kevin, who has cerebral palsy. She has filed a human rights complaint over the lack of programs for disabled people on the reserve. Below, Kevin Taylor often has to get to the bathroom by crawling.

A tough life without running water, but others have it worse

By Mary Agnes Welch 4 minute read Preview

A tough life without running water, but others have it worse

By Mary Agnes Welch 4 minute read Saturday, Oct. 22, 2011

WASAGAMACK -- Rubena Harper meticulously dries every fork, every knife, a ladle and a pizza slicer, wheeling back and forth from the sink to a small table in her kitchen.

"If you keep the body in motion, it stays in motion," says the 65-year-old.

Harper, whose hands are clawed from the same arthritis that keeps her mostly wheelchair-bound, has no running water in her tidy kitchen, so she does her dishes using water hauled from the communal tap or trucked to a water tank.

In the mudroom just a few feet from where she's drying her dishes stand the slop pail and the commode. It's tricky for Harper, who has three metal plates in one leg and is quite thin, to manoeuvre herself from her wheelchair onto the commode.

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Saturday, Oct. 22, 2011

Joe Bryksa / Winnipeg Free Press
Rubena Harper, whose home has no running water, does her dishes by hand: 'There are others who are more critical than I am.'

Reserving their decisions

By Mary Agnes Welch and Kevin Rollason 10 minute read Preview

Reserving their decisions

By Mary Agnes Welch and Kevin Rollason 10 minute read Saturday, Sep. 10, 2011

WASAGAMACK -- Outside, a half-dozen cheerfully filthy kids play on a rickety, mud-caked porch made of old wooden palettes. Trash blankets the yard, as though a big wind blew in from the garbage dump. The walls of the trailer are a patchwork of greying plywood, rotten siding and plastic sheeting.

Inside is worse.

It's the home of Richard Andrews and, off and on, his 12 children and grandchildren. It's arguably the most desperate of the 800-plus homes with no running water in Island Lake.

In a futile attempt to keep the inside tidy, shoes are left in a muddy pile at the door on a soggy piece of cardboard. Every wall is covered in graffiti or children's scribbles. It's not possible to wash the walls because there's no water, and the chipboard would crumble anyway. Several mismatched layers of ripped linoleum or sometimes just plain plywood cover the gritty floors. A mound of dirty laundry is piled near the door, waiting for a trip to the school, where there's a washing machine. A slop pail sits in the makeshift bathroom, an only slightly more appealing alternative than the toxic outhouse in the backyard.

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Saturday, Sep. 10, 2011

JOE BRYKSA / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
Richard Andrews' trailer on Wasagamack First Nation.

Selinger raises First Nations water woes with premiers

By Mia Rabson 4 minute read Preview

Selinger raises First Nations water woes with premiers

By Mia Rabson 4 minute read Friday, Jul. 22, 2011

Ensuring First Nations in Manitoba have access to clean water is a critical part of preparing for future disasters, Manitoba Premier Greg Selinger said Thursday.

Selinger told the Free Press he raised the issue of the lack of running water available to hundreds of First Nations Manitobans in the Island Lake region at the annual meeting of provincial and territorial premiers in Vancouver. Selinger made his point during talks on developing a pan-Canadian disaster-mitigation plan that is one of the key elements he is pushing for at this week's meetings.

"Clean water is a pretty key prerequisite for avoiding a disaster," said Selinger.

Selinger's pitch comes in the wake of severe flooding in Manitoba this year that forced thousands from their homes. Manitoba wants more done to prevent such disasters from having such a devastating effect rather than waiting for Ottawa to step in with disaster financial assistance after the fact.

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Friday, Jul. 22, 2011

Ensuring First Nations in Manitoba have access to clean water is a critical part of preparing for future disasters, Manitoba Premier Greg Selinger said Thursday.

Selinger told the Free Press he raised the issue of the lack of running water available to hundreds of First Nations Manitobans in the Island Lake region at the annual meeting of provincial and territorial premiers in Vancouver. Selinger made his point during talks on developing a pan-Canadian disaster-mitigation plan that is one of the key elements he is pushing for at this week's meetings.

"Clean water is a pretty key prerequisite for avoiding a disaster," said Selinger.

Selinger's pitch comes in the wake of severe flooding in Manitoba this year that forced thousands from their homes. Manitoba wants more done to prevent such disasters from having such a devastating effect rather than waiting for Ottawa to step in with disaster financial assistance after the fact.

First Nations to alert UN to water woes

By Mia Rabson 3 minute read Preview

First Nations to alert UN to water woes

By Mia Rabson 3 minute read Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2011

OTTAWA -- First Nations leaders from northern Manitoba are taking their water crisis to the United Nations.

Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak Grand Chief David Harper told a Senate committee hearing Tuesday the lack of running water in more than 1,000 homes in northern Manitoba is a violation of the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People.

MKO plans to ask the UN to investigate the violations of rights imposed by the lack of water.

"How many more people in northern Manitoba First Nations must get sick with the flu or other diseases just because they can't wash their hands before the government of Canada will take action?" Harper asked the senators at the committee.

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Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2011

Joe Bryksa / winnipeg free press archives
A child runs past a makeshift toilet in a house in Garden Hill First Nation.

Share the wealth, grand chief says

By Helen Fallding 4 minute read Preview

Share the wealth, grand chief says

By Helen Fallding 4 minute read Monday, Jan. 17, 2011

The people of Island Lake are not asking for handouts to help get running water into their homes, Northern Manitoba Grand Chief David Harper told a public meeting organized Friday night to explore whether the Mennonite Central Committee could help.

"In Manitoba alone, $3 billion is extracted every year from our lands, waters, our natural resources. All we're asking is to share the wealth, to go back to the treaties... We simply are asking the general public, the government, to acknowledge that there is a covenant."

Peter Rempel, executive director of the Mennonite Central Committee that organized the Just Water event, said after the meeting that the concept of a sacred covenant "really resonates with Christians."

"The people who signed the treaties on behalf of the Canadian government, I think, must have signed them out of some sense of understanding that this was also under God."

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Monday, Jan. 17, 2011

The people of Island Lake are not asking for handouts to help get running water into their homes, Northern Manitoba Grand Chief David Harper told a public meeting organized Friday night to explore whether the Mennonite Central Committee could help.

"In Manitoba alone, $3 billion is extracted every year from our lands, waters, our natural resources. All we're asking is to share the wealth, to go back to the treaties... We simply are asking the general public, the government, to acknowledge that there is a covenant."

Peter Rempel, executive director of the Mennonite Central Committee that organized the Just Water event, said after the meeting that the concept of a sacred covenant "really resonates with Christians."

"The people who signed the treaties on behalf of the Canadian government, I think, must have signed them out of some sense of understanding that this was also under God."

A Manitoba solution?

By Mia Rabson 4 minute read Preview

A Manitoba solution?

By Mia Rabson 4 minute read Friday, Dec. 17, 2010

OTTAWA -- The Manitoba government is willing to consider a partnership with Ottawa to get clean drinking water piped into homes on northern Manitoba reserves.

Chiefs heading communities where more than 1,400 homes have no running water are urging the provincial government to draft a similar agreement with Ottawa to one that got sewer and water infrastructure added to thousands of homes on northern Ontario reserves in the 1990s.

The Canada-Ontario Retrofit Agreement involved the two governments spending more than $200 million over 10 years to bring conditions in reserve homes up to standards closer to those enjoyed by other Canadians. That included better electrical wiring, running water and indoor fixtures such as bathtubs, sinks and toilets.

The Ontario agreement was unusual because funding for programs and capital projects on reserves is supposed to be a federal responsibility.

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Friday, Dec. 17, 2010

JOE.BRYKSA / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS ARCHIVES
Elder Sam Harper from Wasagamack First Nation retrieves water from Island Lake for his family. More than 1,400 homes on Manitoba reserves have no running water.

Northern chiefs want water

By Mia Rabson 3 minute read Preview

Northern chiefs want water

By Mia Rabson 3 minute read Thursday, Dec. 16, 2010

OTTAWA -- Northern Manitoba aboriginal leaders want clean running water in every home on reserves within two years.

Four chiefs travelled to Ottawa Wednesday to make their plea on Parliament Hill, just a month after a Free Press series revealed that more than 1,400 homes on northern Manitoba reserves have no running water.

"Clean running water in every home is basically what we need here today," said Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak Grand Chief David Harper.

The lack of running water has been blamed for health issues including skin problems and the easy spread of infections like flu. Without running water, even basic hygiene like handwashing is difficult.

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Thursday, Dec. 16, 2010

HELEN.FALLDING@FREEPRESS.MB.CA
Nicole Mason, 14, and her brother haul water to their trailer at St. Theresa Point last winter. More than 1,400 homes on northern reserves lack running water.

Aboriginal leaders call for action on running water

Mia Rabson 2 minute read Preview

Aboriginal leaders call for action on running water

Mia Rabson 2 minute read Wednesday, Dec. 15, 2010

OTTAWA -- Northern Manitoba aboriginal leaders were in Ottawa this morning demanding the federal government put in place a plan to have clean running water in every northern reserve within two years.

Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak Grand Chief David Harper said the lack of running water in as many as 1,000 homes “jeopardizes everyone.”

“Whenever there is a crisis in any part of the world Canada jumps,” said Harper.

He estimates it would cost $60 million to retrofit the homes with the plumbing and fixtures necessary to support running water and install water holding tanks.

Read
Wednesday, Dec. 15, 2010

OTTAWA -- Northern Manitoba aboriginal leaders were in Ottawa this morning demanding the federal government put in place a plan to have clean running water in every northern reserve within two years.

Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak Grand Chief David Harper said the lack of running water in as many as 1,000 homes “jeopardizes everyone.”

“Whenever there is a crisis in any part of the world Canada jumps,” said Harper.

He estimates it would cost $60 million to retrofit the homes with the plumbing and fixtures necessary to support running water and install water holding tanks.

Manitoba formally seeks help to build permanent road

By Mia Rabson 3 minute read Preview

Manitoba formally seeks help to build permanent road

By Mia Rabson 3 minute read Thursday, Nov. 18, 2010

OTTAWA -- The Manitoba government formally asked Ottawa Wednesday for help to expedite construction of an all-weather road into Island Lake.

Manitoba Aboriginal Affairs Minister Eric Robinson met with federal Indian Affairs Minister John Duncan on Parliament Hill, in part to ask Ottawa to partner on building a permanent road to the four Island Lake communities.

At the same time, Ernie Gilroy, head of the East Side Road Authority, met with bureaucrats from the federal department of infrastructure to discuss the project, which includes roads to other communities east of Lake Winnipeg.

Robinson said he is encouraged by the meetings. "The minister and I have agreed the east-side road has got to be put on the radar screen of the federal government."

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Thursday, Nov. 18, 2010

OTTAWA -- The Manitoba government formally asked Ottawa Wednesday for help to expedite construction of an all-weather road into Island Lake.

Manitoba Aboriginal Affairs Minister Eric Robinson met with federal Indian Affairs Minister John Duncan on Parliament Hill, in part to ask Ottawa to partner on building a permanent road to the four Island Lake communities.

At the same time, Ernie Gilroy, head of the East Side Road Authority, met with bureaucrats from the federal department of infrastructure to discuss the project, which includes roads to other communities east of Lake Winnipeg.

Robinson said he is encouraged by the meetings. "The minister and I have agreed the east-side road has got to be put on the radar screen of the federal government."

Glover to meet Island Lake chiefs

By Mia Rabson 4 minute read Preview

Glover to meet Island Lake chiefs

By Mia Rabson 4 minute read Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2010

The federal government is sending Indian Affairs parliamentary secretary Shelly Glover to meet with Island Lake chiefs this weekend to discuss what can be done to address the lack of basic services in the impoverished Manitoba region.

St. Theresa Point Chief David McDougall confirmed Tuesday the meeting he requested in a Nov. 10 letter was granted.

"We want to discuss the options and what can happen to address some of the immediate concerns," said McDougall, who chairs the Island Lake Tribal Council.

He believes the government is listening after a series of Free Press stories drew attention to the health problems caused by lack of running water in hundreds of the area's homes.

Read
Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2010

The federal government is sending Indian Affairs parliamentary secretary Shelly Glover to meet with Island Lake chiefs this weekend to discuss what can be done to address the lack of basic services in the impoverished Manitoba region.

St. Theresa Point Chief David McDougall confirmed Tuesday the meeting he requested in a Nov. 10 letter was granted.

"We want to discuss the options and what can happen to address some of the immediate concerns," said McDougall, who chairs the Island Lake Tribal Council.

He believes the government is listening after a series of Free Press stories drew attention to the health problems caused by lack of running water in hundreds of the area's homes.

Chiefs push for road in north

By Helen Fallding 4 minute read Preview

Chiefs push for road in north

By Helen Fallding 4 minute read Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2010

Speeding up construction of a $1.4-billion all-weather road from Norway House to Island Lake is the best way to ensure thousands of First Nations residents get running water, their chiefs said Monday.

The chiefs from Wasagamack, St. Theresa Point, Garden Hill and Red Sucker Lake flew to Winnipeg for a news conference at the Island Lake Tribal Council office, where they joined Manitoba Grand Chief Ron Evans in calling on the federal government to help pay for the road. All plumbing and construction supplies now have to be brought in via an ice road that was open for less than four weeks this year.

"We need to expedite the road that goes into that region," Evans said, referring to the east-west route announced last week by the East Side Road Authority. A previous proposal for a road all the way up the east side of Lake Winnipeg was rejected because it would have been 168 kilometres longer.

"The province tells us that it would take 30 years... to build a road into that region if there's no federal support," the grand chief said.

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Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2010

JOE.BRYKSA@FREEPRESS.MB.CA
From left, Wasagamack Chief Jerry Knott, Garden Hill Chief Dino Flett, AMC Grand Chief Ron Evans, St. Theresa Point Chief David McDougall and Red Sucker Lake Chief Larry Knott tell media Monday of the need for an all-weather road from Norway House to First Nations in the Island Lake area.

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