Canada’s Third World Country (Don Marks)
Manitoba’s ‘Fourth World’ Conditions on First Nation an eye-opener
Sun Feb 4 2007
By Don Marks
“I’ve heard about things like poverty and lack of housing on Indian reserves,” said Angela Mueller, a student at the University of Manitoba who has never been on a northern First Nations community before. “But I never imagined things were this bad.
“We have a Third World right here in the middle of Canada.”
Added Ed Remple, a farmer from southern Manitoba: “The reserve system is completely dysfunctional.”
Mueller and Remple were part of a group of Manitobans representing a broad cross-section of incomes, occupations and ethnic backgrounds selected by the Free Press to visit Pukatawagan, also called Mathias Colomb Cree Nation, a community of 2,600 people located 825 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg and 210 kilometres north of The Pas.
The guests were invited to observe the social and economic conditions and share their feelings with readers in a special feature to be published in the paper next Sunday, Feb. 11 “Our community was contaminated by fuel spills from diesel generators and an oil farm in the 1970s,” said Pukatawagan Chief Shirley Castel. “Over 100 homes had to be torn down. They have never been replaced, so we have 29 people living in one house, 15 in another and one elderly couple share a 10-by-12-foot log shack with no bathroom.”
Dr. Lydia Derzko was horrified by the overcrowding.
“We watched them have lunch in one house where a table and eight chairs serve as a dining room. Children and their moms are served first but they can only serve eight at a time. The table is cleared and the next eight people sit down. Or they eat out of their laps,” she said.
“I was told they will have to sleep in shifts like that tonight, maybe just two shifts but 16 at a time, in beds, on couches or chairs or curled up on the floor.
“I’ve always been interested in Third World medicine. I found it here.”
According to Castel, “It’s amazing the people can even afford lunch. The food prices in Pukatawagan are way out of line with what is charged in southern Manitoba. Shipping costs are incredibly high but the goods are marked up way too much. I mean, a four-litre jug of milk costs $8.49!”
Chol Kelei, a student at the University of Winnipeg, but originally from Sudan by way of refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya, was shocked at the conditions.
JOE BRYKSA / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
he Mathias Colomb First Nation is coping with overcrowding and poverty, along with high prices for food that is brought in from the south.
“There’s poverty and strife in my African homeland, but I did not expect to find conditions like that here in Canada,” Kelie remarked. “The conditions in Pukatawagan bring back memories of the refugee camps, except here the shelter is much more overcrowded.”
Andrey Sigurnjak, his Croatian accent still strong after immigrating to Canada 10 years ago, had the same feelings.
“I have never seen poverty like this in the smallest villages of Croatia,” said Sigurnjak. “My home country was torn apart by war, but even though no bombs are going off in Pukatawagan, the devastation is similar.”
Indeed, the Mathias Colomb Cree Nation is in a war, of sorts.
They’ve been battling Manitoba Hydro and Indian and Northern Affairs Canada for 25 years, trying to get their land cleaned up and homes replaced. Even though Hydro and INAC have acknowledged legal responsiblilty for spills and contamination, negotiations to redress the damage have produced few results.
The infrastructure in the community is basically sound, however, according to Winnipeg plumber Mike Mclean.
“They have good water and sewage treatment plants, but not every house is hooked up to the grid,” said Mclean. “The plumbing in the houses is OK but there are numerous instances of poor hookups, water sweeping into tiles and so on.
“I’m more concerned about the hundreds of other health code violations I see in every home. Sewage pipes along the walls, mould everywhere, plywood floors, excess humidity… There isn’t one house I visited that wouldn’t be condemned in Winnipeg.”
Chief Castel said residents are well aware of the awful conditions.
JOE BRYKSA / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Stray dogs that roam in the community of Pukatawagan, 825 kilometres northÂwest of Winnipeg, eke out a living by foraging for garbage. “People know they are living in condemned houses,” said Castel. “The band, INAC, building inspectors condemn the houses, but people just move in. It’s better than outside.” The visitors did agree that medical facilities and staff are satisfactory on the reserve, while one Winnipeg teacher also said a new school in the community is a blessing for residents.
“The new school seems to be the only relief up here,” said Jeff Bridle, a teacher at Isaac Newton Junior High School. “The classrooms are modern and tidy. The gymnasium can be used for recreation.
“But I wonder how much learning is affected when children come to school tired and cranky after a crowded sleep or having to line up and wait for breakfast.”
At one time, Pukatawagan prepared a proposal to relocate to Leaf Rapids, a mostly abandoned northern mining town where the population has dwindled from 3,400 to 400, leaving plenty of good housing available which is maintained by the provincial government at a cost of $180,000 annually.
That proposal was rejected by the municipal government which remains in Leaf Rapids.
But even Castel opposed any relocation of the band. “Be it ever so crumbled, there’s no place like home,” she says.
Castel agrees her community has earned the nickname “Dodge City of the North” which was given to her community by an American magazine.
Indeed, crime is rampant. “Isn’t it ironic that a brand new RCMP detachment is being built and (the federal government) had no problem finding the money to do that. Our little community will have eight police officers assigned to it because of our high crime rate,” she said. “This is not the way to solve our problems. We want to go in a completely opposite direction so that someday perhaps we won’t need any police officers.”
Don Marks is a freelance writer and a regular contributor to the Free Press.
27 people call single house their home
PUKATAWAGAN — You walk into Jimmy Colomb’s modest home and people literally come out of the woodwork. One door opens and four children walk out. From behind another door comes a young mom carrying a baby with two toddlers following behind. Then, a curtain is pulled back and a young couple with two more kids appears.
This is reality in Pukawatagan.
There are 27 people living in this five-bedroom house (including rooms separated only by drapes or curtains). Floors are plyboard and tired linoleum, the sidewalls are dotted with pockets of mould, along with the heat ducts and registers. Winnipeg Free Press (February 4)
Mattresses and foams are scattered about, wherever there’s room or wherever there’s warmth.
Daisy Colomb lives in a tiny room with her five children in the corner of Jimmy’s basement. The windows are sealed solid to protect her family from the cold, but they are impenetrable.
So, the only fire escape is the front door.
Fire Chief John Columb tries to encourage people to use smoke detectors. But when there’s a crowd like this, the detectors sound off every five minutes from humidity or from steam.
Daisy has applied to the band office every day for two years for her own house, but there aren’t any available.
Things are marginally better at Francois and Delia Lucien’s place. There are only 14 living there, but it’s just a two-bedroom home… or three if you count the utility closet, as they do.