Sewage problem forces Gull Bay Elder from home

A Gull Bay Elder has been forced out of his home for the past two months due to a sewage backup that has made the house unlivable.
Norman Bouchard Sr., 87, has been living with his son Roderick Bouchard in Thunder Bay for the past eight weeks, as efforts to have his Gull Bay house cleaned up and repaired continue to get passed between federal departments and the Gull Bay band council.
Complicating the situation, Bouchard Sr. suffers from diabetes that limits his mobility, and his son’s house in Thunder Bay has a steep flight of stairs he is unable to navigate.
“My dad’s an Elder, and he wants to go home,” Roderick Bouchard told Wawatay. “He’s lived in Gull Bay his whole life, for 87 years. And now that he’s sick too, he just wants to be at home.”
Roderick Bouchard was a Gull Bay councilor for the past two years, before losing his seat in an election earlier this year.
The sewage problems were noticed in Bouchard Sr.’s home on March 4. An electrician came to Gull Bay soon after and determined that the sewage pump under the house was not working properly. Despite requests for assistance from Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada (AANDC), Health Canada and Gull Bay chief and council, Roderick Bouchard said he had no choice but to bring his father to Thunder Bay once the sewage began to pool in a crawlspace in the house.
“It was starting to smell, and when I went to go to the crawlspace everything was backfilling on the ground,” Bouchard said.
This is not the first time a sewage backup has occurred in Bouchard Sr.’s house, which was built in 2008. In 2009 the sewage pump also broke, and had to repaired.
Gull Bay councilor Louis Bizard, Bouchard Sr.’s nephew, holds the First Nation’s housing portfolio. Bizard told Wawatay that he has been told the First Nation has no money to deal with the repairs needed to Bouchard Sr.’s house.
“The way it looks now, chief and council are not going to do anything about it,” Bizard said.
Gull Bay Chief Wilfred King confirmed that the chief and council were not planning to repair the house. King said that the family was informed in 2008 that the location it wanted to build the house on was not suitable, as it would not connect to the sewage lines in the community. Yet, King said, they went ahead and built the house anyways, and the problems with the sewage have been a result.
“The house shouldn’t have been built where it was built,” King said. “If I build a house on my own in Thunder Bay, I shouldn’t expect the band come and fix any problems I have with it.”
King added that Roderick Bouchard has a house in Gull Bay sitting empty, and that one possible solution could be to move Bouchard Sr. into that home.
Meanwhile, Bouchard said he is getting no help from the federal government on getting his dad a proper place to stay during his time in the city.
When Bouchard requested to Health Canada for funding to put Bouchard Sr. in a hotel room during this ordeal, he says he was told it was a housing situation and to talk to AANDC.
Then, he said, he was told by AANDC that the sewage backup is a health issue by AANDC’s regional office in Thunder Bay. And both departments told him to go to Gull Bay council with the problem, Bouchard said.
“It’s like they are all passing the buck,” he says.
Bouchard said his house in Thunder Bay is unfit for his father’s needs, as a steep staircase leads to the bedrooms and washrooms on the second floor. Bouchard Sr. is not comfortable climbing those stairs without assistance, and so he has been sleeping on a couch in the living room.
Bouchard would like for his dad to at least have a hotel room of his own, where he can relax rather than feeling like a guest in someone else’s home while the sewage problem gets dealt with.
But most importantly, Bouchard wants the sewage problem cleaned up so that his dad can return to the community where he has lived his entire life.
“If he wasn’t sick, he would never ask for help,” Bouchard said. “But he’s an Elder, and in our culture Elders are supposed to treated with respect. And all that he wants is to go home.”