Bearspaw band officials deny allegations made by a Stoney Nation family about their future housing situation in Morley.
As previously reported by the Cochrane Eagle in the Sept. 10 edition, a Stoney family, the Ears, voiced their frustrations and concerns about their current and future housing situation in Morley – Bearspaw band officials were not reached by press time, but have since spoke with the Eagle to explain why certain decisions were made.
The first thing Ken Christensen, acting Stoney tribal administrator, and Rob Shotclose, CEO of the Bearspaw band, wanted to make clear to any band residents was that the chief and council of Bearspaw never physically received any cash from the Alberta government.
“The Alberta government stepped up to provide all the funding, but part of the whole thing is that we do not have the money transferred to us – we do not have control of monies like that,” Shotclose said.
“The chiefs negotiated a very good deal – basically the province agreed to fix all flood damaged houses, including where there is building code deficiencies not related to the flood. The province also agreed to bring all of the houses up to the Alberta building code,” Christensen said.
In 2013 a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed between the Alberta government and the three bands, Bearspaw, Chiniki and Wesley, residing in Morley.
Shotclose said there are almost 1,000 homes between the Morley, Eden Valley and Big Horn reserves that need to be brought up to code. Out of that, 550 of the homes were flood affected or damaged and 100 houses have already been repaired to date, according to Christensen.
While the majority of homes being brought up to code simply needed repairs, some homes, such as the Ear family’s previous house, needed a full replacement.
“There was a committee formed last fall in the Stoney Nation [with] all three bands and our own engineer told the government that we will set the codes for replacement homes in partnership with the province and we worked hard for about two to three months, upgrading all the building codes to withstand the wear and tear that occurs on the reserve with houses,” Shotclose said.
Shotclose explained, some of the building requirements; long term resistant shingles; concrete siding; larger water tank to accommodate the number of people living in the house; abuse resistant drywall; and upgraded flooring, to handle extra traffic in the house.
“I think it will be one of the best modular units – I think these ones will be tougher and longer lasting than the other ones because we’ve specifically told the government that we need to upgrade in a lot of areas,” Shotclose said.
“In the end, we are going to get a good unit that should last a lot longer than what just comes off the lot.”
The Ear family previously discussed with the Eagle their disappointment in the lack of basement and location, but band officials said they have not heard any other complaints from other Bearspaw band members.
The decision was made for full replacement homes to not have a basement to prevent possible future flood damage, Shotclose explained, “In return, we insisted we get storage buildings for replacement home, the decision was between a sea can and a shed type structure and with negotiation with the other two bands – it was suggested and agreed upon that the nation goes with long-lasting sea can structure as a storage building.”
The replacement houses will also be a metre above slab and none of the modular units will be placed on the flood plain, Christensen said.
“There is site preparation being done so that [the Ears] house will not be flood affected in the future,” Christensen explained.
Band officials explained that they had engineers go survey the future home sites, denying some requests for relocation due to lack of infrastructure on the chosen location.
“The province is unwilling to spend extra monies – to build extra water lines, to build new septic fields, bring power to new sites, they would rather keep things in the same sites, as long as they are not in the flood plains,” Shotclose explained.
As for the Ear family comment that band officials made about watching their new trailer ‘go down the river in the next flood’, Christensen said band officials deny saying that.
“I think we’ve been more than willing to accommodate [the Ear family] to hear their concerns, I know our chief had the meeting the other week to talk – it’s not like the band is avoiding the issues, they are trying to address it,” Shotclose said.
More than two years after the Alberta flood, Shotclose said various communities through the province are still going through the process of trying to repair the damage.
“There is a shortage of houses on the Stoney reserve – there is a long waiting list of people wanting home and it is one of the bigger issues going forward,” Christensen said.
