Poor highway drainage surrounds N.W.T. elder's cabin with ice

An elder living near Tsiigehtchic, N.W.T., says poor drainage off the Dempster Highway is putting his home in danger of being flooded.

Twice a day, George Niditchie, 79, chips away at the snow and ice, clearing a channel for the water that threatens to flood his house.

"I can't do nothing," he says. "I am stuck here. I don't want it to come into the house."

The water is coming from a lake on a hill that's overflowing onto the Dempster Highway and Niditchie says it goes towards his property. 

The N.W.T. Department of Transportation says it's already spent $35,000 relocating Niditchie to a new cabin away from the flooding, but Niditchie says he can't get to that cabin because of the recent flooding. 

Frederick Blake Jr., MLA for Mackenzie Delta, raised the issue in the N.W.T. legislature last week, calling on the government to install a culvert with heat trace to prevent it from freezing up.

Transportation Minister Tom Beaulieu said his office just began talks with the department about "placing the culvert in a different angle and also using some heat trace so it doesn't freeze in there."

Niditchie says he hopes the department doesn't wait until summer to find a solution. He says he doesn't know how long he can keep chipping away the ice.