Home away from home at Wequedong Lodge

The friendly atmosphere in Wequedong Lodge’s recently consolidated 110-bed facility has been a big hit for medical appointment clients from across northern Ontario.
“I kind of like it — I know my own people,” said Cyril Beardy, a dialysis patient from Muskrat Dam who has been staying at Wequedong for over two weeks after being in the hospital for two months. “When I was in the hospital, I couldn’t really talk to anyone, but here I can talk to anyone.”
Beardy, who is currently receiving dialysis treatments three times a week at the hospital, has met with two other people from his community since moving to the lodge.
“I’m glad to be here,” Beardy said. “The staff are really nice.”
Before Wequedong established the new 52-room facility this past March in partnership with Ontario Aboriginal Housing Services and the government of Ontario, the non-profit had been operating two lodges with a total of 42 beds. Since Wequedong usually has about 140 clients per week, up to 100 clients had to be lodged in motels or hotels around Thunder Bay.
“Consolidating Wequedong Lodgeʼs four buildings into one efficient 110-bed development significantly enhances Wequedong Lodge’s service delivery,” said Sylvia Maracle, chair of the OAHS board of directors and executive director of Ontario Federation of Indian Friendship Centres.
Wequedong is now able to provide clients with accommodations, transportation, translation and meals from one location.
And the Wequedong employees are “extremely excited” with their new facility, said Betsy Ledger, Wequedong’s project manager/health and safety coordinator.
“We’ve heard comments how classy it looks,” Ledger said. “It’s very professional. We have a complete commercial-sized kitchen available for our cooks and we have a commercial-sized washer available now for our housekeepers.”
Patricia Raven, a cook/server with Wequedong, said the new kitchen is “great.”
“We mostly serve healthy foods for diabetics,” Raven said. “We try to provide a healthy variety. It’s all simple, basic, easy to cook meals.”
Ledger said clients also appreciate that many Wequedong employees speak Ojibwa, Oji-Cree and Swampy Cree in their dialect.
“So if there is a need for translation services, we have that within our employees,” Ledger said.
Darryl Jay Ottertail, Wequedong’s assistant field supervisor, said the new facility is “amazing.”
“It’s been in the making for the past 10 years,” Ottertail said. “When it came in on time on March 15 and we finally moved in, some of the staff actually had tears in their eyes, not just for themselves but for the clients.”
Ottertail said some clients phoned after the new facility was opened on March 22 to say they looked forward to staying in the new accommodations.
“It’s real and it’s good to have one place, you know, one big roof, not just for the clients but for some of the workers,” Ottertail said. “The clients look forward to coming here because we have everything here all in one building.”
Charles Morris, Wequedong’s executive director, called for recognition of all the people and organizations that provided contributions to the new facility.
“Recognition is due to the lodge’s board of directors, many of whom have been with the lodge since the mid-1990s,” Morris said. “Also to Ontario Aboriginal Housing Services and to the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation for their grant contributions, to the Credit Union Consortium for their financing, and to those employees who partook in the dream to strive for a single building operation.”