Carol-Ann Ballantyne with her children outside the trailer where they live. Photo: supplied.
For the past three winters Carol-Ann Ballantyne, a mother of five, has been living in a camper trailer in Pelican Narrows, also known as Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation (PBCN), in northeastern Saskatchewan.
Ballantyne acknowledges the trailer is not equipped for the winter cold as ice has been building up on the walls, door frame and windows. She says the floor is ice cold and she has to constantly try to keep her home warm using two 100-pound propane tanks and a small electric heater. She can’t use a wood stove because her two-year-old lives with asthma.
“Many times I cry at night, hugging my baby, hugging my kids, wishing I can give them a better life,” she told APTN News. “Last winter it was extremely cold and this winter it is going to be cold again. I just ran out of propane at 6 a.m. this morning so now I have to try and go out of town to go pick up more propane.”
This is the second family in the community APTN has reported on living in a trailer.
Ballantyne said a 100-pound propane tank only gives the family one week of heat.
The family has no running water and Ballantyne admits she sometimes drives her kids to Prince Albert, nearly 400 kilometres south, just so they can have a proper bath at a family member’s home.
“My kids just recently stopped getting scabs on their skin because I couldn’t bathe them every day. When it gets nice and warm in my RV, then I can bathe them in a blue tub,” said Ballantyne, adding she is grateful to have electricity after her mother paid for a power box.
Her partner and nephew have also joined her and her children in an already crowded home. To make matters worse, for about two years, mold has been growing on parts of the trailer’s walls and ceiling due to the moisture, which has been impacting the family’s health.
“Usually my nine-year-old daughter misses school because she gets sick from the mold and being cold. I try to clean up the mold, it comes back again and again,” said Ballantyne.
Ballantyne said she decided to leave Prince Albert and move back home to PBCN after the cost of living in the city became too expensive for her family. She knew her community has been dealing with an ongoing housing crisis and bought the camper trailer as a temporary home. She then put her name on the Nation’s housing list two years ago.
“I stated that my baby needed a home because she’s asthmatic and also has autism, which is still undiagnosed. A mother knows when her child is not well so I know she lives with autism.”
Ballantyne said hers is not the only family struggling to stay warm in the area.
“Where we stay there’s three RVs, three families. Two adults in one RV and the other RV has four other children and their parents,” added Ballantyne.
Ballantyne said the PBCN staff hasn’t been helping her, including with assistance to cover the cost of trying to keep her trailer heated.
“They haven’t helped at all. I asked my welfare worker if he can open an account to assist me in driving to Flin Flon to pick up propane but all he did was laugh at me and he said, ‘Open your own account’. I tried but (the staff) said I couldn’t open an account until my welfare worker was there to help, but he doesn’t want to help me. My welfare worker also cut me off of welfare because I work here and there but welfare doesn’t help me with propane and I had to work, some way, some how to keep my family warm,” said Ballantyne.
APTN contacted PBCN for comment on Ballantyne’s situation and did not receive a response.
In a previous statement regarding a similar incident involving another family freezing inside a camper trailer, PBCN Vice Chief Justin Halcrow said people living in trailers during the winter is a reflection of the broader housing crisis in the community. Halcrow also mentioned the ongoing violence within the community with previous reports of violence fuelled by alcohol and drugs.
“With over 3,900 band members and only 335 housing units, the community faces chronic overcrowding and limited infrastructure. These challenges are compounded by safety concerns and the limited availability of contractors will to work in the area (due to the ongoing violence),” said Halcrow.
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NDP MP Charlie Angus raised Ballantyne’s issue during Friday mornings Question Period on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.
“Temperatures are plunging in northern Canada and the ongoing housing crisis on northern reserves is putting families and children at serious risk. Carol-Ann Ballantyne lives in a moldy trailer with her children in Pelican Narrows. For years she has pleaded for a simple home to keep her children warm and safe but to the Liberals, she is just another name on a list of an ever-growing backlog of heartbreak and homelessness in the north, a crisis they have continued to ignore.
“Why is this government refusing to help this family? Why are they refusing to step up and deal with this crisis?” said Angus.
The minister of Northern Affairs, Dan Vandal, said the department has been working on creating partnerships with provinces, territories and Indigenous leaders since 2015 to get more houses built in northern Canada.
“Several years ago we invested $4 billion dollars in distinctions-based housing to get construction done. Last year, there was another $4 billion for an urban-rural northern housing reserve. We’re going in the right direction and there’s still lots of work to do,” added Vandal.
Ballantyne hopes her story will bring immediate change to the housing crisis in PBCN.
“I want the federal government to tell our leadership to help everyone in need because we should all be treated equal. The people who are receiving homes should not just be for the staff who work for the band office. It really hurts to see our leadership only choosing their favorite people,” said Ballantyne, alleging inequality from leadership.
Ballantyne wants to build her own home one day but that plan could still be years from now and she said she doesn’t want to invade other families’ space. She just wants a warm home for her and her family to live in. She adds if worse comes to worse, she will gather up her family and try to stay warm in their vehicle.
“I don’t want to move into town where the main community is because there’s too much violence. There is gunshots every night. Recently, someone shot up a house and bullets almost hit the person inside the home. Another day, I was picking up my workers, there was four cops in a house where they sell alcohol and methamphetamine.”
