Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is for either the Minister of Transportation or Housing, whichever Minister wants to take it. I’ve raised this issue before in the House. It’s about an elderly gentleman in Tsiigehtchic, Mr. George Niditchie, who is 73 years old and just got out of the hospital not that long ago from frostbite, suffered as a result of the problem he’s facing with flooding around his home. His home is across the river from Tsiigehtchic. The problem arises due to overflow coming along the Dempster Highway and down towards his place. I noticed that the overflow is now running over the Dempster Highway. They are now up there with equipment trying to dredge the thing using backhoes and whatnot to get the overflow to flow down the hill. The impact of this decision to reroute the overflow is directly affecting Mr. Niditchie’s home, which was built in 2009 through the Log Home Initiative by this government. It was built with the Housing Corporation’s assistance through this program.
I’d like to ask the Minister if he has an update on what exactly is being done to remedy the situation and also try to find a way around this problem so that Mr. Niditchie does not have to deal with this again this year. I brought this forward in the House last year and it has still not been resolved.
Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister responsible for Transportation, Mr. Michael McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member has raised this issue with me on several occasions. It is certainly a concern. We have a senior who has had a lot of problems with the runoff of water from one of the lakes in the area. We’ve directed our staff to look at the possible remedies and I have not heard back. My staff have been working through the Housing Corporation and the Department of Transportation to see what the options are and in what ways we can assist this senior. I have not heard back formally as of yet.
In my discussions with Mr. Niditchie and his family, the ideal solution they would like is to move him and relocate him to the opposite side of the highway, up the hill a bit so it’s off of where this problem is and thereby remedying the problem. The problem is only on one side of the highway. I’d just like to ask the Minister if he would seriously consider looking at that possible option.
Yes, it is one of the options we’re looking at. We also looked at the possibility of looking at a better drainage system or redirecting it and changing some of the culverts so the water would run through. It would be fairly expensive. It looks like, at this point, the easiest solution would be to be able to relocate the building. There are some land issues we need to sort out, but it’s a real possibility that this is the avenue we will go.
I’d like to ask the Minister if it’s possible for his staff either in Transportation or Housing to move on this matter as quickly as possible. I think with the warm weather coming, the problem is going to get worse and I think it’s already bad enough as it is right now. The elderly gentleman did freeze his foot. He has been unable to walk for the last two months. He’s housebound because of the frostbite to his feet because of the overflows. I’d like to ask the Minister if he can also keep myself and Mr. Niditchie in tune on exactly where we’re going with this and try to move on it as quickly as he can.
We certainly can commit to doing that. We also had other discussions with the senior involved, including the possibility of looking at temporary accommodations in a public unit. It sounds, by the Member’s comments, that this was not accepted, so I will commit to having some feedback for the Member as soon as I can get an update from my own staff and provide that to the Member.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Krutko.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d also like for the Minister to keep the chief of Tsiigehtchic involved and, more importantly, the Gwich’in Tribal Council. This issue has come up in the Gwich’in Assembly. The area that is being flooded is on Gwich’in land. So this issue is an issue that came out and there could be legal issues around it. I’d like to ask the Minister if he can also keep the political organizations involved in where we’re going with this.
We’ll respond to all the different organizations that have contacted us over the last while regarding this issue and keep them informed as we move forward.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Nunakput, Mr. Jacobson.
