‘Everybody wants to go home’: Pimicikamak evacuees given indefinite timeline for return

Thousands of residents of Pimicikamak remain displaced from their homes two months after a massive outage in their community. CTV's Joseph Bernacki reports.

Hundreds of Pimicikamak Cree Nation residents are still struggling nearly two months after a power outage plagued the community.

“I had to leave my home, my job, my family,” said Shelly Paupanekis on Friday, whose life has been disrupted since Jan. 3.

That’s when she had to evacuate her home in the community over 500 kilometres north of Winnipeg. It’s been nearly two months away from her community and she said it’s taking a toll on her mental health.

“This is my third evacuation,” Paupanekis said.

“The first time was in the summer when the smoke engulfed our community.”

“Everybody wants to go home, it’s been a long, long journey here, it’s very hard,” said Jackson Osborne, who evacuated his house in Pimicikamak on Jan.14.

Osborne and Paupanekis are just two of more than 2,000 evacuees waiting to return, and it still could be weeks before they can go home.

Workers had to tear apart Paupanekis’ kitchen and bathroom to fight water damage and mould from the Dec. 30 Manitoba Hydro outage.

“The state of emergency has now turned into a health and safety issue and whether those people can come home or not, remains outstanding,” said Pimicikamak Cree Nation Chief David Monias to media on Friday afternoon.

Monias said he wants Manitoba Hydro and the province to help fund the mould remediation and emergency repairs needed for roughly 900 homes.

Asbestos has also been found and Monias said 237 homes have been classified as uninhabitable.

“I think (for Manitoba Hydro) to really come to the table and say listen, ‘we understand that you guys are in this situation as a result of the infrastructure failure of the Manitoba Hydro lines and we are willing to take responsibility,’” Monias said.

In a statement to CTV News, a spokesperson for Manitoba Hydro said the Crown corporation does not provide funding for building repairs.

The spokesperson said Manitoba Hydro has built electrical infrastructure to serve two temporary camps which house outside contractors who are working on repairs in the community.

Monias said there are roughly 100 tradespeople who have been working on repairs in the community for weeks now.

On Friday, Premier Wab Kinew was non-committal when asked by media if the province would consider sending any additional funding to help the ongoing crisis.

“We’re one province, we all want to work together, and we were there through the most challenging part of the emergency,” Kinew said.

“But (I) still want to see people get help to be able to go home.”

CTV News reached out to Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) for an update into federal funding provided for emergency relief.

A spokesperson from ISC said the Indigenous Services Canada Emergency Management Assistance Program (EMAP) is providing financial support to Pimicikamak Cree Nation to address the damage.

“The department is actively working with the community and their support organizations to identify the required resources for this work,” reads the statement in part.

“While EMAP does not have funding authority to cover pre-existing issues, the department takes mould and asbestos concerns very seriously.”

Community organizations assemble $30,000 donation for Pimicikamak students

In the past week, Ka Ni Kanichihk, a Winnipeg-based Indigenous non-profit, has received a $30,000 donation to provide 400 backpacks filled with school supplies to Pimicikamak students who have been displaced.

Jackie Anderson, executive director for the organization, said a $10,000 donation came from Striny Reddy and True North Aid who contributed toward the school supplies and educational resources.

The remaining $20,000 came from the Graham C. Lount Family Foundation for backpacks, water bottles and other learning materials.

Anderson said it’s been humbling to see generous support for families impacted by the emergency. The backpacks were delivered to families earlier this week.

“I think those are really valuable resources coming to our aid,” Monias said.

“We’re happy about those kinds of things because we’re trying to normalize as much as we can of our children’s lives by sticking together and being together.”