Infrastructure at the Heart of the community: Roads
Evan Steinhauer talks about a road improvement project in Saddle Lake Cree Nation - Whitefish Lake #128.
Infrastructure at the Heart of the community: Roads
Transcript
(Image of Investing in First Nations community infrastructure interactive map)
(Alberta is highlighted on the map and a marker appears on the community)
(A white rectangle with text appears above the map)
Text on screen:
Project: Access Road Upgrade
Community: Saddle Lake Cree Nation, Whitefish Lake #128, Alberta
(Text fades away, new text appears)
Text on screen:
Infrastructure at the Heart of the community: Roads
(Photo of Evan Steinhauer standing in front of the road)
Evan Steinhauer speaking: You know, we need to have a good infrastructure in order for our children to leave. They want to go to university or college, typically they want to come back. Given the state of our road back then, how would you ask anybody to come back to that?
(Photo of Evan Steinhauer in front of a brick wall)
Evan Steinhauer: My name is Evan Steinhauer. I'm the band manager for the Nation.
Text on screen:
Evan Steinhauer, Band Manager, Whitefish Lake First Nation #128, AB
(Evan Steinhauer speaking in front of an exterior brick wall with colorful paintings)
Evan Steinhauer: Going home, the Chief and I - who lived right down the road from me - we stopped and there was an ambulance that, you know, got stuck in the middle of our road.
(Photo of the road)
Evan Steinhauer: There was a gentleman in the back that, you know, was needing help
(Evan Steinhauer speaking in front of an exterior brick wall with colorful paintings)
Evan Steinhauer: …there's a reason that he called the ambulance, and unfortunately they got stuck! It was an eye-opener for everybody, you know, when you see an ambulance stuck. There was another situation where a lady was in labour…
(Photo of 2 horses grazing by a dirt road)
Evan Steinhauer: …about a half a kilometer from the main road, you know, the ambulance got stuck.
(Evan Steinhauer speaking in front of an exterior brick wall with colorful paintings)
Evan Steinhauer: We had to carry her out by stretcher and get her to the hospital. You know, you guys rode the roads today I would say they’re a thousand times better than what they were! But even the department sometimes would say: "Hey! We can't come in the springtime, right?" It was bad.
(Footage of the road being built with a construction worker climbing in a mechanical excavator, and another crossing the road with a sign to slow down traffic)
Evan Steinhauer: One of the keys to our infrastructure is making sure that we leave it for our youth, and that they can take on and manage it when it's their turn to manage.
(Evan Steinhauer speaking in front of an exterior brick wall with colorful paintings)
Evan Steinhauer: So that's how we always look at it, with all our projects. It's always youth-focused. That they’re going to be...at one point they're going to be the managing people of this community and, you know, it’s important to leave them something to manage, not leave them nothing. Thankfully, you know, we got the roads money and thankfully, you know, people can drive the roads now and not worry about getting stuck in the middle of it!
(Map of Canada with Alberta highlighted)
(A marker shows the community on the map, text appears on screen)
Text on screen:
Roads & Bridges
Project: Access Road Upgrade Whitefish Lake #128
Community: Saddle Lake Cree Nation, Whitefish Lake #128, Alberta
Visit www.canada.ca/infrastructure-on-reserve to see all projects supported by the Government of Canada’s First Nations targeted infrastructure investments.
(Canada wordmark)