Acadia fears the worst

Page 9

Before something tragic happens, members of a Nova Scotia band want a paved road connecting them with vital services more than 30 kilometres away.

Residents of one of Acadia First Nation's reserves, located in the southern reaches of the province, have to travel the dirt road every day to bring their children to school. The road frequently washes out, cutting them off from ambulance services, the fire department, and police.

The road is often in such bad condition that vehicles can only move at a crawl, which is far too slow should there be an emergency. The New Year's Eve disaster in the remote Northern Quebec community of Kangiqsualujjuaq is still fresh in people minds, but for the people of the Acadia First Nation, it rings an alarm bell. Disasters can strike quicky, but for people in remote areas, rescue and relief can be too slow to arrive.

They have already had brushes with disaster that give them cause to worry. Last spring a fire truck from nearby Liverpool, N.S. almost rolled on the road while trying to reach the reserve - the truck had to be towed from the mud and did not make it to the reserve.

Currently, the people from the small community are circulating petitions in hopes of persuading the province to pave the road connecting them to Milton, which is about 35 kilometres away, and Liverpool, which is another 15 kilometres further off.

"The road is definitely not good up there at certain times of the year," said Jim Parks, fire chief at the Liverpool Fire Department. He says from autumn through until late spring it is difficult to guess what conditions will be encountered.

"Our concern is that when the road is not at its best it will slow our response time for getting up there. They deserve the same kind of protection as anyone else," Parks said.

Response time might increase dramatically, even double, depending on conditions. The 35 permanent residents share the road with power commission employees, staff of a nearby fish hatchery, logging trucks, bush workers and cottagers.

"The road is bad in the spring, summer, fall, and winter. It isn't fit for anyone to travel on," said Acadia band council member Debbi Wentzell. At the time of the interview, the area had recently been hit by a snowstorm followed by several days of rain. She said she doubted it would be possible to travel the road. Although they have pressed for years to have the road fixed, repairs have so far included dumping gravel and grading the road. But when waters rise, residents say the road turns to soup and becomes impossible to travel with conventional vehicles.

"You have to pretty much crawl because you have deep mud. When they grade the road it only lasts a couple days and if they put gravel on it, it just turns to soup because you have large trucks hauling on that road too," said resident Jean Whynot. "When it rains our road gets washed out until it gets fixed.

"The road's in an emergency situation. There's times we're stuck in there with no way out," she said, then adds, "When I went into labor, I almost had the youngest boy coming down the road because it took so long to get there. They told me another five minutes and I wouldn't have made it to the hospital."

She said the community is concerned about the safety of its children and Elders.

"If there was something serious, the ambulance just wouldn't make it on time," Whynot said. A paved road will put residents' minds at ease but Whynot believes it may have greater implications than peace of mind.

"If something does happen and the road is fixed, there could be lives saved. My young fellow had fallen down the basement steps and if it wasn't for us putting him into our vehicle and meeting the ambulance, he might not have made it," she said.