Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Robson, Robert

Titel

SUFFERING AN EXCESSIVE BURDEN: HOUSING AS A HEALTH DETERMINANT IN THE FIRST NATIONS COMMUNITY OF NORTHWESTERN ONTARIO

Ist Teil von

• Canadian journal of native studies, 2008-01, Vol.28 (1), p.71

Ort / Verlag

The Canadian Journal of Native Studies

Erscheinungsjahr

2008

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

EZB Electronic Journals Library

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• "1 A large portion of the estimated 89,000 on-reserve houses in Canada, are in poor condition, overcrowded, unaffordable, improperly serviced, poorly sited and generally, inappropriate given the culturally based shelter needs of the approximate 423,000 on-reserve residents.2 On-reserve housing conditions are such that the Department of Indian and Northern Affaire, who along with the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, has accepted much of the responsibility for ensuring that on-reserve housing needs are being met, maintains that over forty percent of the units are inadequate.3 Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation in the Research Highlights document, "Housing Conditions of Native Households," makes a similar claim when it suggests that only half of all on-reserve housing meets or exceeds the standard for suitability and adequacy.4 In Ontario, where the estimated 1 9,667 on-reserve houses accommodate a population of approximately 74,676, housing units too are in poor condition, overcrowded, unaffordable, improperly serviced, poorly sited and generally inappropriate.5 According to the Corporate Information Management Directorate of the Department of Indian and Northern Affaire, approximately forty-one percent of the on-reserve housing in Ontario requires major and/or minor repairs and a further five percent needs to be replaced.6 Beyond housing adequacy, twenty-five percent of Ontario's on-reserve drinking water systems are "not up to basic safety standards", almost twelve percent are not serviced with any type of sewage disposal system, roughly eight percent have no electrical servicing and about half of the on-reserve communities have either no solid waste disposal services or those services that are provided are inadequate.7 In northwestern Ontario, or more specifically, the Treaty 3 area of northwestern Ontario, there are twenty-six reserve communities housing, according to the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs' Housing and Infrastructure Assets Summary Report, approximately 7,580 individuals.8 Stretching from Saugeen First Nation in the east to Iskatewizawaagegan in the west to Wabauskang in the north to Couchiching in the south, the community of the Treaty 3 area includes approximately 2,182 housing units.9 Like the general on-reserve housing stock in Ontario, these units leave much to be desired. "41 In many ways acknowledging the inadequacies of on-reserve housing, the report argues further that poor construction which often leads to mold growth, gives rise to "health problems such as respiratory and immune system complications" that crowding, inadequate sewage disposal and poor water servicing increases the "incidence of shigellosis" and that high density housing occupancy heightens the occurrence of tuberculosis.42 The Canadian Institute for Health Information, like Health Canada and the Auditor General, clearly makes the link between "poor housing conditions and a host of health problems" that confronts onreserve residents.43 Whether it is shigellosis, hepatitis, tuberculosis, meningitis, measles, respiratory diseases, asthma, diarrheal diseases, intestinal, skin or middle ear infections, eye infections or what Health Canada has called, "mental health problems, family tensions and violence," the literature clearly suggests that many of the health issues encountered by the on-reserve population are tied directly to the conditions of on-reserve housing.44 Housing that is overcrowded and in short supply, poorly ventilated, inadequately heated, lacking in water servicing, waste disposal (both sewage and solid wastes) and electrical servicing, poorly sited (particularly for drainage) and that requires considerable repair and/or maintenance to make it habitable, offers a less than healthy living environment to onreserve residents with limited housing options. First through the Robinson - Superior Treaty of 1 850, then Treaty 3 in 1 873 and finally Treaty 9 in 1 905 and the adhesions of 1 929 and 1 930, the Aboriginal community of northwestern Ontario slowly came to be a reserve based community. "63 Of the eighteen percent of the households not serviced by piped water systems, thirty-seven percent are dependent on a community well, twenty-two percent an individual well, thirteen percent are serviced by other means and roughly two percent are dependent on trucked water systems.64 A fairly significant total of twenty-five percent of the non-piped water households have no water service whatsoever.65 Particularly glaring here are communities such as Lac Seul First Nation where approximately fifteen percent of all housing stock in the community has no water service (this is also described by the Housing Infrastructure report as having "no indoor plumbing"), Wabaseemoong where almost nine percent of the houses are without water service or Washagamis Bay where roughly thirty-three percent of the houses are recorded as having no water service.66 Although Health Canada reports that ninety-three percent of on-reserve dwellings in Canada have "adequate sewage disposal systems," in the Treaty 3 area and even with what the government may describe as adequate sewage disposal systems, the "...thin soil cover typical of many communities located in the Canadian Shield may result in sewage effluent reaching the lakes and rivers relatively untreated, resulting in bacteriological contamination.