Whitefish River First Nation sees opening of new community Elders Residence
By Rick Garrick
WHITEFISH RIVER FIRST NATION — Whitefish River celebrated with a guided and virtual opening for their new $3.5 million, 9,000 sq. ft. eight-apartment Elders Residence on Dec. 1.
“The facility has been ready since April 1 and it’s also serving in the time being as isolation rooms if we get a COVID-19 case in the community,” says Whitefish River Ogimaa Shining Turtle. “People called in and booked appointments to go and take a look at the opening so cleaning could go on and we could follow all of our COVID-19 conventions just to bring some hope to the community that things are being done.”
Ogimaa Shining Turtle says the Elders Residence was built in seven months.
“It’s got some interesting pieces in it — we have a place for our Elders to socialize,” Ogimaa Shining Turtle says, noting the craft room leads out into a shaded area for the Elders to use for outdoor activities during the spring, summer and fall. “[It provides] a real sense of dignity to their stay in the facility.”
Ogimaa Shining Turtle says the building features spray foam insulation and staggered wall framing along the hallway corridors for better insulation and soundproofing.
“We have these terrific winds particularly on the west side of the structure [and] we didn’t want those leaks to penetrate into the building,” he says. “And on the south side, the south wing, there’s just warmer summers now so they get the cooling effect of that [insulation] as well. We put money into that to make sure the comfort was there for the Elders.”
Ogimaa Shining Turtle says that the apartments are quieter than a regularly insulated building.
“[The wall framer] took the sound out of the hall by the way he framed the main hallway,” he says, noting that the framer learned about building quieter buildings while working in Alberta. “He said: ‘So when people come in there, the noise is dampened — I know about noise in halls. It transmits into somebody’s apartment.’”
Ogimaa Shining Turtle says the Elders will be selected for the apartments through a screening process.
“As soon as we can get some assurances that our human behaviour moves COVID-19 away from us, we can safely move people in,” he says.
Ogimaa Shining Turtle notes that the Elders Residence was funded through the federal government, which provided $850,000, Canada Mortgage Housing Corporation and the First Nation.
“Once we got the contribution from the federal government, we were off to the races,” he explains. “We’ve been talking about this Elders facility for over 20 years. We have a capital planning study and processes that we follow and the community talked about this some 20 years ago and we just couldn’t find the money.”
He adds that there was a good response from the community about the Elders Residence.
“Every council faces its fair share of criticism, but the response to making sure the Elders have a world-class facility is reassuring,” Ogimaa Shining Turtle says. “We may not agree on everything, but we agree that dignity for our Elders is worth every penny we put in.”
He says that the Elders Residence is just one of a series of projects in his community. They replaced their water tower with a new one last year, recently opened a new $1.5 million daycare centre, and are currently building four new houses with plans to build six more houses next spring and to develop a new $2.5 million subdivision with about 15-20 building lots in the near future.
“We plan to be successful — we have capital plans and we update them on a pretty regular basis,” Ogimaa Shining Turtle says. “We’re updating our capital plan and going from 2020 and beyond.”