Zoey Duncan
After spending more than two years concerned about the level of contamination in their backyards, Couchiching residents who live on the site of the former J.A. Mathieu sawmill will move into new homes beginning this summer.
Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC) had declared the land surrounding Harry’s Road to be industrial and therefore not fit for residences, said Christine Jourdain, the economic development officer for Couchiching First Nation.
A dipping pond used to treat railway ties with creosote and other chemicals was found to be buried there in 2009.
“What [INAC is] saying is that they’re living in a zone that is deemed industrial, because the Bingo hall is there and this was an old sawmill site, instead of saying it’s [because of] contaminated land that they’re moving them,” noted Jourdain.
Six households will be moved, including one family that moved out of their home in the spring of 2009 to avoid any further exposure to the chemicals.
For Shawn Jourdain and his family, it’s been a long time coming.
“Especially when you’ve owned a house your whole life and you’ve been paying for a house for almost three years that you can’t live in and now you’re renting,” he remarked.
“We used to live by the lake. And my kids have missed almost three years of the lake now,” he added.
“You can’t get that back.
“We’re purchasing and renovating a house on the First Nation,” he continued. “It’s a beautiful spot; we’re excited to get there.”
For Christine Jourdain, who has worked on the project since testing began around 2002, this has been an important and positive development.
“We’re really proud that the move has been made and these people will be out of here,” she remarked.
“It did take a while.”
The contamination of the former sawmill site was a key issue for Couchiching First Nation, leading to a toll booth being placed on Highway 11 last May.
The project to relocate the six households is costing $3.2 million—a bill paid for entirely by INAC.
The cost includes providing the displaced residents with equivalent value in their new houses, based on square footage in their former homes, as well as compensating them for additional structures such as docks and garages, and building water and hydro-electric infrastructure.
Two pre-fabricated homes have been built across the highway from the Bingo hall, and those residents will be able to move in once some additional landscaping is complete.
The new waterline and septic field at those sites means more people could build homes there in the future, Jourdain added.
“There is [potential] for future growth here,” she explained. “If people want to start moving down here, then we can start to look at developing this area because we are short of places to have people live on the First Nation that want to come back home and get a chunk of land.”
Meanwhile, three other homes are under construction on the lakefront near the Five-Mile Dock.
“They’re getting a lot more than they had, a lot of them,” said a delighted Christine Jourdain.
Finally, Shawn Jourdain’s family chose to renovate an existing home on the water and will be able to move in later this summer.
But moving in is not the final step in the lengthy project. Multiple sites on Couchiching are at risk of contamination, the extent of which is unknown at this point.
“We’re in the midst of doing a decommissioning plan, going in and looking at the houses [on Harry’s Road],” Christine Jourdain said. “We will then demolish them, and find a suitable landfill site that will take the stuff.
“Then these homes will be gone and this land will be, I guess, left to [be decided upon] between chief and council and INAC what they’re going to do: clean it up, turn it into industrial something.
“What can we do with it?”
The sawmill site runs along Rainy Lake and Jourdain said residents have been discouraged from swimming in recent years because of the potential for water contamination.
“There are concerns with the towns of Fort Frances and International Falls and the water quality,” Christine Jourdain said.
“They keep asking us every time, ‘Have you tested yet?’
“No, we’ll get to it when we can and let you guys know after that, and they can do what they need to do or maybe can offer some help at that time if it is high-level [contamination] so that all of us can work together to get this cleaned up,” she reasoned.
Testing of the soil and water will continue as Couchiching works with INAC and other groups to understand the potential risks of the former sawmill site.
Susan Bertrand, communications manager for INAC, said a historical review of the entire site is being completed so a soil remediation plan can be designed.
But Bertrand was unable to comment further on what she called the current “potential concern” in the area.
