Manitoba chief asks for military support after blackout leads to electrical fires, boil water advisory

Alex Karpa reports on the damage caused to a First Nation community in Manitoba after it was left without power for several days and the challenges that remain.

Sonya Ross’ house has been severely damaged, after her community of Pimicikamak Cree Nation in northern Manitoba was without power for four days last week.

The outage happened on Dec. 28, after a 300-metre-long power line running between two islands in the Nelson River broke. Power was fully restored in the community Friday.

However, the days without power caused much of the community’s water system to freeze, leading to pipes bursting and sewage backing up.

Ross’ generator is broken and there is extensive water damage throughout her home, including black mould in all of her windowsills.

“That’s going to take me a lot of money to fix, and it’s going to stink,” she said on Wednesday. “I still have to check the damage in my rooms, like around the beds. I have weeping walls, and most of my beds are against the walls, so I have to see if there is mould on the walls by the bed, where my children sleep.”

“It’s hard to replace what’s broken, due to the high cost of living.”

Ross says she doesn’t know how she is going to clean up the mess in her home, but says she has to take things day by day.

“When the power went off, … we had to go into survival mode,” she said.

Down the road from Ross, Murphy Trout is dealing with major flooding in his crawl space. He was forced to go to Thompson when the power went out, but decided to return a few days later.

“The water was starting to bust when I got back,” he said. “The pipes started to bust as well.”

But for as badly damaged as his home is, he says he has to stay put.

“There’s nowhere else to go,” he said. “I have to stay as long as there is a roof.”

Repairs could take months

Many of the homes are currently being assessed for damages, but leadership says it’s unclear how many homes will require repairs due to the lack of proper resources in the community.

So far, 35 homes have been deemed uninhabitable, and a few homes burned from electrical fires after the power was restored.

Local plumber Randy Spence said the priority is to fix the plumbing for homes with seniors and children, but repairs could take months.

“I have been working for 40 years for the community, and I just want to help them,” he said. “But it’s impossible to do everything just like that.”

Todd McConnell, a plumber brought into Pimicikamak to help with the repairs, says they are working as fast as they can to get everyone back to normal.

“We’re trying to get everything fixed one house at a time,” he said. “We have come across some homes that have been lucky, but it’s far and few.”

Both McConnell and Spence believe the total cost of the damage throughout the community will be well into the millions.

‘We want the army’

Chief David Monias of Pimicikamak Cree Nation penned a letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney earlier this week for the immediate deployment of the Canadian Armed Forces’ Joint Task Force West, to assist in various emergency services.

But Monias says he has been getting a lot of resistance.

On Wednesday a delegation of federal, provincial and First Nations leaders arrived in the community to assess the damage.

Northern and Arctic Affairs Minister Rebecca Chartrand says she has been inquiring about bringing the military to the community.

“When you think about what’s needed on the ground, you’re needing technicians, plumbers, electricians, right now we have eight plumbers with the Canadian Armed Forces across the country and so I think what’s needed is a local approach.”

“We need to access all the plumbers and technicians that are local. This is an opportunity to tap into local and Indigenous-owned businesses that can provide support,” she said.

But Chief Monias didn’t mince words in his response to Chartrand’s comments.

“We want the army to come help,” he said to Chartrand. “We need them here right now. I think they should be here.”

“We’ve exhausted our local resources and I’m tired. Everyone is tired here.”

“This is why we need the help here,” he says.

Monias has called for the deployment of the Armed Forces for emergency logistical support, including water delivery and sanitation work.

The community’s schools are also now inoperable because of a damaged pipe and issues with the heating system. The health centre is up and running on an emergency basis.

‘This is a catastrophe’

Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak Grand Chief Garrison Settee says the response needed requires all resources available.

“In order to address this crisis, there has to be external resources,” he said. “This is a national emergency. Our people are dying. Our people are suffering, and our people are in trauma.”

“This is a situation where the government must respond at the highest level to bring services and resources to address that trauma that exists, because it’s impacting everything,” he said. “This community has turned up-side down.”

Over 4,000 people remain out of the community in Winnipeg, Thompson and Norway House, only six months after majority of the community was evacuated due to wildfires that ripped through much of the province over the summer.