Homes built to meet serious shortage

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Apartments, hotels to come

A "critical housing shortage" at zero-vacancy rated Fort Chipewyan is being curbed with the building of new homes for the town's 1,500 residents, says John Rigney, manager of the Fort Chipewyan band.

An official opening ceremony was held at Fort Chip in January to acknowledge the completion of seven new houses built at the townsite with financial assistance from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC).

Athabasca MP Jack Shields, minister responsible for CMHC, said the housing project "is evidence of the federal government's ongoing commitment to provide adequate housing for Canada's Native people."

The new CMHC homes are "a way for people here to afford better housing at a modest cost," noted Rigney, adding the houses are subsidized with government funds and are rented to residents according to income.

The two and three bedroom units are hooked up to municipal services. The homes, which have a total capital cost of $557,203, are located in the townsite and three are designed for the use of seniors.

Rigney explained the housing shortage started in the early '70s after the WAC Bennett Dam was closed down in 1968. This caused the world's largest delta to dry up and destroyed the livelihoods of trappers in the area. The Peace / Athabasca Delta, which covers about 3,000 sq. miles, provided the perfect breeding ground for muskrats. Trappers hunted the muskrats for its pelt which provided a "basis of living" for trappers. When the dam shut down "it virtually eliminated all of the muskrat trapping."

Some 1,000 people relocated north to Fort Chip, where about 200 new homes were built to meet demand. Rigney says the community was financially overwhelmed by the flood of new residents. Mass housing projects were conducted but Rigney pointed out the houses were "not designed to last a lifetime," leaving Fort Chip faced with the task of replacing and building better homes for the residents.

Rigney explained the houses built at that time were "simple and cheap" and cost about $10,000 a unit. But, he says the new homes are more sturdy, costing between $50,000 and $80,000 a unit. Both the Chip and Cree bands in the area are building new homes every year. The Chip band builds about three homes a year and the Cree band has been building an average of 10 houses a year.

Rigney says the condition of the old houses at Fort Chip are livable but crowded. He estimates that about 30 to 40 young couples, some with children, live at home with their parents.

Rigney also noted in the townsite there are no apartments or hotels. But he predicted, the community will see such accommodations in the next 10 years. By that time, there should be a major road leading into the community, which currently only has a winter road and is isolated by a few rivers that surround Fort Chip.