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FROM: THE GLOBE AND MAIL NEWSPAPER

_http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20051111/BCGIL
FORD11/TPNational/Canada_
(http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servl...ational/Canada)

Gilford Island natives strike deal for new homes

Government, band to replace shacks in village suffering from tainted water



By JONATHAN WOODWARD
Friday, November 11, 2005 Page _S1_
(http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servl...111&searchDate
Type=searchDateRange&sort=Score,sortdate,sorttime&hub=SearchAdvanced&searchTyp
e=Advanced&from_date=20051111&to_date=20051111)

His community has been suffering from undrinkable water for eight years and
disgusting, mouldy houses for nearly a quarter-century.
But Chief Bob Chamberlin took only a few days to strike a deal with the
federal government to replace the worst of the dilapidated shacks at the
Kwicksutaineuk-ah-kwaw-ah-mish First Nation.
And with temporary housing arriving within months to the tiny village of
Gwayasdums on Gilford Island off the northeastern tip of Vancouver Island, it
won't be long before the children -- many of whose families left the village
because they couldn't live with the health hazards in their homes -- can return,
he said.
"We needed some tangible things because our community has heard words and
phrases before," said Mr. Chamberlin, whose band has promised to contribute
$520,000 to the project that will replace the entire village.

"Why this didn't happen before, I don't know," he said.

The wells of Gwayasdums, once branded the sickest village in B.C., have been
contaminated with salt water and citizens have been drinking bottled water
for eight years.
The village's houses are rundown, with holes, leaky roofs and often-faulty
electrical wiring, and the stench of sewage rises from the ground.
Mould in the houses has driven many families with young children from Gilford
Island, Mr. Chamberlin said.
Villagers have skin rashes from bathing in salt water, respiratory diseases
plague all the residents, and last year, one young child was taken away on a
respirator, said Dr. Granger Avery, who visits the community regularly from
nearby Port McNeill.
On Tuesday, Dr. Avery saw two people with rashes, one with respiratory
distress and several with mood disorders.
"All of the health problems can be traced to the mould or the water," he
said.
Vancouver Island MP John Duncan toured the village on Monday.
"It's not Alert Bay, it's . . . sick bay," he said.
But the prospect of a change in the band's lot -- motivated in large part by
media coverage of the community's plight two weeks ago -- is bringing
cautious optimism to the village, which heard promises a year ago that things would
improve.
A sign on David Johnson's door warns visitors that because of the mould, it's
unsafe to visit his house, let alone live there. He hopes his home -- among
the worst in the village -- will be replaced soon.
"It will be nice to be in something that's clean that won't make us sick,"
Mr. Johnson said.
Chief Chamberlin took his concerns about the conditions on the reserve to the
media on Oct. 31. He met with government officials on Nov. 3 and reached a
deal. Details will be finalized before a meeting between Mr. Chamberlin and
federal Indian Affairs Minister Andy Scott on Nov. 16, said Ken McDonald, the
manager of the special services unit of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada.
Last month, the Ontario government airlifted about half of the Kashechewan
reserve's 1,900 residents to communities farther south at an estimated cost of
$300-million because of poor conditions, undrinkable water and a media
firestorm.
Mr. McDonald said such drastic measures were not required in Gwayasdums.
Between four and five mobile homes will be placed on empty lots, he said, and
between three and six houses will be demolished.
The mobile homes will arrive in the coming months, and eventually the entire
village will be redeveloped, he said.
"We looked at every house, and decided that none were worth saving," he
said.
The federal government built the houses in the 1960s using designs that
didn't account for the humidity of the area, he said.
"They were standard reserve houses for that time period," he said. "Now,
we're paying the price, on and off reserve, for that misconception."
Mr. McDonald said public pressure through the media had "focused" his
department's efforts. A change in the band's leadership also made an agreement
possible, he said.
The band has promised $520,000 to the project from their revenue-sharing
agreement with the provincial government for timber, Mr. Chamberlin said.
About $100,000 will be used over five years on the band's share of
maintenance of a water-purification system, which is still in the design stages, he
said. Spending the band's money "demonstrates we're responsible," he said.
But some band members who left the reserve say they may never return. Dorothy
Hawkins, 30, left for Port McNeill with her five children a year ago, one of
them breathing through a respirator.
It may be better for her to raise them in Port McNeill, she said. Even if the
mould problems are gone, her children have better access to schools now, and
she wants them to be able to drink tap water.
"I had to move for my kids' sake," she said.

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