Norway House forced to relocate nursing home residents to city

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This article was published 11/05/2022 (960 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

NORWAY House Cree Nation is transferring care home residents and staff to Winnipeg, after failed attempts to fix the centre’s hot water system and problems with sewage backup.

“It’s terrible,” said one staff member, reached Wednesday. “We’re doing the best we can.”

The care home has been without hot water since March 17. Staff had been reduced to using baby wipes for residents’ personal hygiene while hoping the problem would soon been fixed. Sewer backup has also been a problem at the aging facility, said the staff member, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

They said all 21 residents and 20 staff caregivers will board a medevac plane and three regular Perimeter Airlines flights and travel 452 kilometres south to Winnipeg on Friday.

The residents will stay at Norway House Cree Nation’s medical boarding home at 333 Maryland St. for the next two to four months, said the staff member, who wasn’t certain where the employees accompanying them will be housed.

The First Nation has been forced to take the lead on organizing charter flights, medical transport and accommodations for the elderly residents and staff, as neither the provincial government nor Indigenous Services Canada has provided a commitment, council member Deon Clarke said.

“We can’t risk the health of our elders… We can’t risk losing any of them because these are our knowledge keepers… they are very precious,” Clarke said. “We’ve got to make them our priority.”

The province has signed off on the residents being temporarily relocated to the building on Maryland Street with appropriate emergency plans in place, said Clarke. The government also agreed to provide medical beds for the seniors, but that’s where support stopped, he said.

“We cannot wait for Manitoba any longer to come up with plans. They haven’t stepped up to the plate.”

On Wednesday, Health Minister Audrey Gordon was not made available for comment. Her press secretary directed inquiries to the federal First Nations and Inuit Health Branch or Norway House Cree Nation.

In the meantime, Clarke said his community is looking at hotels and rentals to house the staff and their families heading south with the residents. The band councillor said he hopes the province can bolster their ranks with temporary additional staff.

The goal is to have the elders back in the renovated home for Treaty and York Boat Days in August, he said.

Norway House is trying to create a home away from home for the elders by bringing familiar staff and keeping residents together, rather than sending them to individual homes across the province, Clarke said.

“We don’t want to cause any more emotional trauma to these elders. These are the people who have survived residential school and day school. They’ve been through too much and we don’t to cause them to go through any more.”

The provincial government should cover the cost of the flights, said Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont, who raised the issue during question period Wednesday.

“Will the premier commit to cover the cost to get elders from Norway House to a place of comfort and safety?” he asked.

The health minister said a request for proposals has been issued “and we will continue to do what is necessary to ensure Manitobans receive the services they need,” Gordon told the house.

Lamont said a Manitoba Hydro power surge “fried the circuits” of the hot water tanks at the personal care home.

Hydro says it was notified of an outage to a nursing home in Norway House on March 21, and it was repaired in an hour.

However, everything needs to be replaced and the hot water parts are 10 weeks on back order, Clarke said. The home had sewer backups and, in the process of repairing the problem, aging sewer lines failed in other spots.

Part of the sewer line has to be excavated to correct the problem. However, that work can’t be completed until ground-penetrating radar is conducted on the adjacent former residential school site this summer, Clarke said.

carol.sanders@freepress,mb.ca

danielle.dasilva@freepress.mb.ca