Save a buck and spend a fortune - the story of housing in Camperville

In Camperville, on September 8, I stopped to have a look at the housing situation. The building shown in the top and bottom photos is an ATCO trailer which was purchased by the provincial government (I am not sure whether it was the NDP government under Howard Pawley or the Conservative government under Gary Filmon).

The story I was told is the follows.

To "save" money, this and a number of other trailers were purchased in 1988 after the Calgary Winter Olympic games. The purchase price was apparently $1 for each trailer, but then it cost $90,000 each to transport the trailers and set them up as homes in places like Camperville.

For a variety of reasons, it would probably have been much cheaper to have built proper homes to begin with. One of the reasons, is that these "trailers" were never intended to be permanent homes and have not and will not last as long as permanent homes. The homes, sadly were put on timbers which had been soaked in creosote, and one of the problems is the environmental issue of the fumes coming off the creosote and entering the homes.

Today, Ernie Urbanowski (shown with me in the top photo), is facing the question of whether he should try once more to repair trailers like this, or whether he should be building new homes. Unfortunately, with the funding allocation he has, he is only able to use the money to repair the homes. The province should surely allow communities like Camperville the flexibility to use the dollars in the best way they can - so long as they go to improving the housing stock in the community.

Garry and Sylvia - pillars of the community of Snow Lake, Manitoba

Garry and Sylvia Zamzow are partners who put an incredible effort on behalf of people in Snow Lake. Garry, as the mayor, gets lots of flack - particularly when there is a controversy in town. But he manages to handle things with a level of poise and equanimity which helps a lot in difficult times. [Snow Lake has had its challenges, particularly with the closure of the New Brittania Mine last year].

Sylvia works hard as a nurse in the health care field. Among many other challenges, she makes sure every child is followed carefully from the time of birth onward. Sylvia also runs a bed and breakfast for visitors.

Together, Garry and Sylvia contribute a lot to their community.

Cross Lake, Manitoba is a very beautiful spot.

Whenever I visit Cross Lake, I am struck by the beauty of the surroundings. The Pimicikamak (Cross Lake) First Nation offices overlook the waters of Cross Lake (top photo). On one side is a large bay (middle photo). On the other side there is a smaller bay and the homes are easily visible clustered around the shores of the bay (bottom photo).

Health Care in Cross Lake - and the four heroines, Brenda, Yvette, Lisa and Rhonda

Councillor Cathy Merrick (photo with me above) is doing everything she can to improve the delivery of health care in Cross Lake, Manitoba. But there has been an appalling lack of support from the federal Conservative and provincial NDP governments. This must change.

But rather than just speak about the problems the people of Cross Lake have experienced in accessing health care I want to put an emphasis on recognizing four heroines.

In order to do this, I must first describe the situation in Cross Lake. To provide for acute care, there should be a complement of about 12 nurses. There is no hospital in Cross Lake, there is only a health centre for the approximately 6,500 people in the community. The health centre has about 22,000 visits per year - it is very busy - and it is busy during the evenings and nights as well as during the day. For the last several months, four nurses - Rhonda, Lisa, Yvette and Brenda - have provided the staffing for acute care at the Cross Lake Health Centre.

I will describe their shifts as they told me. All four work during the day every day (only rarely have they been able to have one off on a weekend). One of these four nurses then works the 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. shift. A second works the 9:00-12:00 p.m. shift. A third works the 12:00 midnight to 9:00 a.m. shift. All four, including the nurse who worked the overnight shift then work the day (9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. shift). All these shifts are busy shifts!!

Because these four nurses cover all the clinics during the day as well as the emergency care, it has been a tremendous challenge. From time to time clinics have had to be cancelled because the nurses are just stretched too thinly - but the emergency care has continued round the clock.

[I should note that cancelling the clinics has created major problems in the delivery of health care in Cross Lake - and I heard of patients who had not been able to get a clinic appointment for a long time - this must be changed.]

But for now, let me emphasize the incredible work of Rhonda, Lisa, Yvette and Brenda. They are heroines in the delivery of health care. They need to be applauded and recognized for their incredible efforts.

Spirit Way has come a long way in Thompson, Manitoba

September 7 in Thompson I had the opportunity to catch up with the progress of the Spirit Way project. The wolf sculptures (photo above) add an important new dimension. I can see that by next year, the Spirit Way is going to be an important element in building Thompson as an important tourism destination. Way to go Thompson!

See also: http://www.manitobaliberals.ca/2006/08/spirit-way-in-thompson-manitoba.html

Hope for Lynn Lake

When we visited the tailings site at Lynn Lake, Audie Dulewich did show us several small plots of hope. Here, in a series of test plots, some people from a University in Olds Alberta came to try a recipe for growing grass on the tailings site. They apparently applied fertilizer and other ingredients and then planted the grass. It is still growing there several years later. It is clear there are ways to start restoring plant life on top of the tailings pile to cover it over and reduce the continued acid leaching which is occurring now.

While the recovery of land which has been badly contaminated by acid mine tailings is complex, it has been done elsewhere and it is time for action to do it at Lynn Lake and at other contaminated sites in Manitoba.

The last three decades of Tory and NDP governments in Manitoba have failed the people of Lynn Lake. The tailings were supposed to be contained by a dyke, but a large amount of tailings were deposited outside the dyke. The result is that the tailings have washed from the pile and contaminated huge areas south of the tailings in the East Tailings Management Area (ETMA). When Audie Dulewich was younger the area shown in the photo above was green boreal forest. Today, it is a wasteland - and in the distance you can see the tailings continue to move south and cause continued die-off of trees.Major action is clearly needed for the people of Lynn Lake. Major action is clearly needed to contain and clear up this situation for the people of Lynn Lake.

Lynn Lake - Mine tailings - a visit with Mayor Audie Dulewich and Municipal Administrator Helen Gibson

While in Leaf Rapids on September 6, we visited with Mayor Audie Dulewich and Municipal Administrator Helen Gibson. The top photo shows Mayor Dulewich and Garry Zamzow who was travelling with me.

In their board room, is a big chart of the area. It is a Tailings Assessment Map. The map documents the impact of deposits of 21.8 million tonnes of mine tailings on 212 hectares of land.
Moreover, tailings were used to construct roads in the community and to fill in land sites for a variety of other purposes. One part of the community is built on acid rock waste (tailings). This is visible as the red lines on the middle photo.

There is a huge problem with building on top of mine tailings. The acid rock in the tailings is eating away at the water pipes and they are now very fragile. The acid rock tailings are leaching into many of the nearby waters and residents have concerns about the drinking water.

After our visit in the town office, we went to see the tailings pile themselves. When we arrived at the tailings site, we found winds sweeping across the site and blowing the toxic acid mine tailings all over the place. When the winds calmed later on, the place looked like a desert. The problem we have in Manitoba is we have an NDP government which has done virtually nothing in more than seven years in power. The Gary Doer NDP claim to be concerned about the environment, and yet they have sat by while this site has been getting worse and worse. It is time for major action here.

Lynn Lake and its goal - to be the Sport Fishing Capital of Manitoba

Lynn Lake is determined to be the Sport Fishing Capital of Manitoba. People fly in to Lynn Lake from great distances to fish. Lynn Lake has many excellent fishing lakes nearby.

The community is working to enhance the fishing experience for those coming to the area. See also http://www.manitobaliberals.ca/2006/09/eden-lake-and-high-quality-fisheries.html

For more see
http://www.completeangler.net/anglernews03.html

But there is an issue that needs to be addresssed - the mine tailings - see http://www.manitobaliberals.ca/2006/09/lynn-lake-mine-tailings-visit-with.html
Until the mine tailings are cleaned up properly, it will be a blot on the landscape and make it more difficult to attract fishermen and others wanting a great environment for their fishing experience.

Eden Lake and High Quality Fisheries Management

In the Leaf Rapids and Lynn Lake areas, people are working on an approach to fisheries management which they call High Quality Management. The basic idea is to use a variety of techniques including - smaller limits, better protection of spawning areas and critical fish habitat etc to increase the quality of the fishing experience for those who come to fish.

I was told that people credit the approach for improved fishing in Eden Lake (above). While there may be other reasons as well, nevertheless, the move to improve fisheries management and to enhance the experience for people who come to fish is a good idea. As many around Manitoba know I am a strong proponent of better water and fisheries management.

We have seen too many problems with fisheries management in Manitoba under both NDP and Tory provincial governments. It is important to build on successes which have occurred when local communities have taken initiatives and to improve the situation province-wide.

Waste acid drainage from the Ruttan Mine site

Planners at the former Ruttan Mine site appear to have done much better, so far, than planners did at the Sherridon Mine site in handling the toxic acidic waters coming from the tailings pond.

Following the mine closure, the toxic waters have been diverted into the former mine itself, including both the surface site shown in the photo above and the deeper underground mine.

But we heard that the water is filling the mine site faster than expected and therefore it is critical to address the tailings pile and reduce the acidic runoff and develop a longer term plan.

For more on the Ruttan Mine tailings pile see:
http://www.manitobaliberals.ca/2006/09/leaf-rapids-and-clean-up-of-tailings.html

Leaf Rapids and the clean up of the tailings pile at the Ruttan Mine - where were the NDP this year?

Bond Ryan, administrator of the Town of Leaf Rapids took us to see the tailings pile left after the Ruttan Mine closed (top photo Bond Ryan points out details of the tailings pile to my son Charles who joined me on this northern trip). The tailings pile at Leaf Rapids needs attention. The Ruttan Mine was closed four years ago, and yet the tailings pile sits exposed rather than being covered over so that the toxic minerals in the material won't continue to leach. When the tailings are exposed to air and water, there is a progressive acidification and leaching of the toxic minerals. Action is needed to finish the job of cleaning up this site (bottom photo).

Town leaders were under the impression that the work on the tailings pile would begin this summer - but then no one showed up. They are wondering what happened.

It is in the nature of tailings piles like the one at Leaf Rapids that the problem will only get worse if it is not addressed. It is time for action now. Indeed, being engaged in the clean up now will help to create some badly needed employment in the area. It will also clean up this eyesore so that Leaf Rapids can continue to boast of its positive features to tourists, instead of having to explain why this has not been attended to .

Leaf Rapids - moving forward in the face of adversity

The community of Leaf Rapids has recently brought in a program to increase the use of cloth grocery bags and reduce the use and pollution by plastic shopping bags.

Each year, for the last few years, the town of Leaf Rapids has had to spend $5000 to clean up plastic garbage bags which blow out of the town dump. After some research into what other communities are doing, they found a community in Europe with a plan. They have adopted the Leaf Rapids variation of this plan to reduce the waste and pollution from plastic shopping bags.

The Leaf Rapids plan provides for a municipal levy of three cents on all plastic shopping bags. At the same time, the town has bought cloth bags and distributed them free to residents.

This program is an example of how Leaf Rapids is leading the way in tackling environmental issues. Years ago when the town was first built, it led the way in planning for a community in the boreal forest. Today, even though the Ruttan Mine closed in 2002, and the community has had to contend with difficult economic times, Leaf Rapids is forging ahead with progressive initiatives like this.

In the photo, Garry Zamzow (mayor of Snow Lake) and I visit with Councillors for Leaf Rapids (George McKenzie, Denis Langwost, Herb Nelson and Gary Trewin), and Town Administrator Bond Ryan. We are holding the town's cloth bags to show support for their efforts.

Manitoba's wonderful boreal forest

There are those who ask - why would anyone live in northern Manitoba? For me the answer is obvious - there is incredible beauty, peace and serenity in the boreal forest of Manitoba. After all, this is one of the reasons why many in southern Manitoba either have cottages or want to have a cotttage along one of Manitoba's lakes.

Certainly, there are challenges in building the economy in northern Manitoba. But there is much to do in the north, and the possibilities in today's internet world are endless. We need to listen to those in the north - and we need to work with those who live in the north. This is in part what my many visits to northern Manitoba have been about.

The top photo shows Wekusko Falls south of Snow Lake. Better local input into fisheries management on Wekusko Lake is producing better fishing there. The bottom photo shows a sunset over Snow Lake.

Mona Forsyth - a dedicated news gatherer and reporter for the Snow Lake News

Mona Forsyth, shown in her office above, has been reporting the news in Snow Lake for many years. Just a few minutes before I walked in to her office late in the afternoon of September 5, she had just sent the latest issue of the Snow Lake News to print.

News is a passion with Mona, and if you ever need to know anything about Snow Lake she is certainly the one to ask.

While I was in Snow Lake I met with Mayor Garry Zamzow and councillors Cauline Armsworthy, Brenda Cairns, Grace Chrapun and Dave Mayer. With the closing of the New Brittania Mine a bit more than a year ago, the community has faced challenges.

Today, they have many concerns including the costs of training ambulance workers and delivering ambulance services, the costs of operating their water treatment plant, the development of new lots on Wekusko Lake. Too often the NDP provincial government is not as attentive as it should be to the unique conditions in the north.

Roads, roads roads - I heard a lot about the poor condition of northern roads

The road above is the road to a community of more than a thousand people - in Moose Lake.

As you can see from the top photo, there is a big problem with dust. The photo is taken through the back window of my car. There is a cloud of dust rising behind the car. It can be dangerous passing cars going the other way because for a short while you can see very little. Such dust clouds have been the cause of accidents on various roads in northern Manitoba.

The middle photo is on the arm of the road going to the part of the community at Crossing Bay.

In Moose Lake, the condition of the road in to the community was a constant source of comment and concern when people talked to me. Unfortunately the photos do not adequately portray the size of the boulders on the road, or the potholes in the road.

Moose Lake community is in urgent need of a new school and improved adult education

The photo above shows the temporary gymnasium for the school in Moose Lake. Sandra Lambert, who is the Mayor of Moose Lake and is also the physical education teacher at the school, talked to me about the gym. The problem is that there is no bathroom in the gym. When it is cold in the middle of winter, the children must go outside in order to go to another building about 80 meters away where there are toilet and shower facilities.

The new school is needed as soon as possible. Yet, at the moment, I was told, completion is probably two years away, and could be longer if there are any delays.

As well as a new school, there is a big need for improved adult education at Moose Lake. At the present time there is only a one room building which serves as the adult education centre for the community. Inside are a number of computers run by a dedicated staff. But there is a clear need for improved support. There is insufficient child care available which limits the participation of young mothers who need access to adult education. There needs to be access to technical training so that community members can acquire or upgrade basic skills to build and maintain homes and maintain vehicles, boats, computers etc. There also needs to be a better ability to address literacy issues for adults. I was there long enough to appreciate the need. Members of the community are looking for partners and funding support to enable the improved adult education that is needed.

Moose Lake, Manitoba - a beautiful lake

When I travel in northern Manitoba, I am invariable impressed by the beauty of the lakes. Moose Lake is no exception. In the top photo, Chief Philip Buck of the Musakahiken First Nation stands on a small rise in his community with Moose Lake in the background. Below is a photo taken at Crossing Bay on Moose Lake.

On my way into Moose Lake, the morning of Sept 5, I was fortunate to have an adult Bald Eagle fly low overhead.

The people of Moose Lake and Mosakahiken Cree Nation work closely together and share facilities. It is a good example of cooperation. I was fortunate to have discussions with both Chief Philip Buck of the Mosakahiken Cree Nation and Sandra Lambert the Mayor of Moose Lake and to learn of their vision for a prosperous future for their joint community.

The Pas and the Kikiwak Inn

"A home away from home" - is the translation of Kikiwak, the name of the Inn where I stayed in The Pas for the night of Sept 4. There is a colourful and friendly atmosphere, with large paintings of wolves and loons hanging high up on the walls of the main lobby.

Still cleaning up on Cedar Lake, more than 40 years after the Grand Rapids Dam was built

Few people in southern Manitoba realize that there is still clean up occurring on Cedar Lake, 40 years after the construction of the Grand Rapids Dam between 1960 and 1968. The Dam flooded large areas of land and forced the relocation of the community of Chemawawin to its present site on the south shore of Cedar Lake. For more of this story see
http://www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/ch/rcap/sg/sg41_e.html

When Cedar Lake was flooded in the 1960s, so far as I am aware no attempt was made to cut down any of the trees in the area. The result, even today, is that Cedar Lake has many areas where there are trees which were flooded but never cleared, and their continuing presence creates hazards for boaters and for fishers. When I was through Chemawawin in July (see http://www.manitobaliberals.ca/2006/08/chemawawin-cree-nation-emphasis-on.html ), I talked with community members who were heading out to help with cleaning up the flooded trees some 40 years after the flooding occurred. Piles of debris like this one on the shores of Cedar Lake reflect the continuing clean up efforts.

Progress at Easterville and the Chemawawin First Nation on Cedar Lake

Recently, I met with Chief Clarence Easter of the Chemawawin First Nation. He suggested I stop in to see the new breakwater in their community. So I did. The harbour is now much better protected. It is certainly a big step forward for people in the community, particularly those who are going out to fish or boat on Cedar Lake.

The new breakwater and the new school (see http://www.manitobaliberals.ca/2006/08/chemawawin-cree-nation-emphasis-on.html ) are signs of progress at Easterville and Chemawawin.

The end of summer - St. Laurent

Driving to northern Manitoba on Sept 4, I stopped in at Beachside Delights in St. Laurent. It was a hot day, and the ice cream was good. St. Laurent is a community on the shore of Lake Manitoba. Members of the community are working with the Smithsonian Institution to highlight Metis history and the community of St. Laurent. They also have a dream of building a museum and centre for St. Laurent building on the work done with the Smithsonian Institute.