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The Current Transcript for February 18, 2021

Host: Matt Galloway

STORIES FROM THIS EPISODE

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Prologue

[Music: Theme]

WOMAN: Last summer, you could drive by here on the weekends and there would be tons of people all lined up here meeting up because they, you know, that's the only way they could.

MATT GALLOWAY: This pandemic has kept so many of us away from seeing friends and family. In Stanstead, Quebec, that divide is even more acute because the town itself is divided. One side is in Canada, the other in the United States. In 30 minutes, as part of our "Canada's Road Ahead" virtual road trip, we pull into Stansted to hear how a border that many took for granted is now keeping people apart. And how the town came together for a rare long-term care success story. Also, this morning, in the dead of a pandemic winter that has seen many people displaced, the story of how community members in Kitchener, Ontario, came together to create a safe space for people without a home to stay in. Plus,.

["Life On Mars?" by David Bowie/Pop].

MATT GALLOWAY: Well, that's the big question, isn't it? Later today, fingers crossed, NASA's latest Mars Explorer will land on the red planet. We'll hear from the Canadian scientist on the mission about what she's hoping to discover and why the idea of life on Mars still holds such promise. We start, though, in Texas, where it's cold, the power is out, and people are wondering whether this is a sign of things to come. Good morning, I'm Matt Galloway. This is "The Current".

[Music: Theme]

What we can learn from the Texas blackout

Guests: Biko Gray, Emily Grubert, Judah Cohen

MATT GALLOWAY: Millions of people in the United States are again waking up to freezing cold temperatures, many with no heat or electricity this morning. The worst-hit area is Texas. A severe winter storm brought unprecedented amounts of snow and ice, pushing the electrical grid in that state to collapse. Selecia Maten is in Houston. She spent the past three days living in a furniture store.

SELECIA MATEN: We were in our condo, but for three days without any power, no heat. It was 17 degrees in our condo. I mean, I can't even explain that. I've never experienced anything like this before. As we we would talk, you could see the breath. We had an icicle. My daughter found an icicle inside by the window. The strangest thing you could ever even fathom.

MATT GALLOWAY: That 17 degrees that Selecia mentioned is in Fahrenheit, minus eight Celsius. People have been shivering under blankets, trying to keep warm by gas stoves or by sitting in their running cars for the past several days. And more than 30 people have died across the United States since those winter storms moved in. Biko Gray is in Houston. Biko, good morning.

BIKO GRAY: Good morning. Good morning.

MATT GALLOWAY: How are you doing?

BIKO GRAY: I'm OK now. We had... we had the good fortune of being with a couple of friends who were able to keep us up who had power. So we were OK for four last night.

MATT GALLOWAY: And you're staying warm in the car right now?

BIKO GRAY: Yes, I am, actually.

MATT GALLOWAY: How bad was this storm?

BIKO GRAY: It's difficult; it's all relative, right? You all are in Canada, and actually, I'm employed in upstate New York. So for those of us who are from the northern side, it's relatively mild, less than a foot of snow, but pretty, you know, pretty cold temperatures. And so by northern standards, it was pretty mild. By Southern standards, it was extreme temperatures, particularly for Texas, and specifically in Houston, where I stay.

MATT GALLOWAY: And so what does that look like? I mean, we heard Seleca Maten there saying that, you know, she was living in a furniture store for three days to keep warm. What have you seen in terms of how people have been coping?

BIKO GRAY: I mean, what... what we've been noticing, at least my my partner and I, is that many of us have had to get in our cars and be able to... to try to find heat to try and stay warm. We had stayed in our apartment, and the temperature just rapidly dropped, as Seleca spoke about. And so you just had to find ways. Many people were just sitting in their cars, trying to warm up, trying to charge their phones. We saw many people actually die from carbon monoxide poisoning because of this. And so that has been what we have been paying attention to. But thankfully, as I said, you know, some of us have been able to make it out, but many of us just have not. And I... yeah, I'll leave it there.

MATT GALLOWAY: When did you lose power?

BIKO GRAY: We lost power around 1:30 Sunday night. So we were... I'm a Twitter fiend. And so I was watching as ERCOT went from EEA2, which is kind of dire to EEA3 within 30 minutes. Apparently, they waited for the last minute to let people know that the grid was going offline.

MATT GALLOWAY: And so how cold did it get in your apartment, ultimately?

BIKO GRAY: Ultimately, it got down to about, I believe, about 40 degrees. We had, again, we were thankful to have a couple of friends. And then the power came on intermittently yesterday. And so... so we had it on for maybe 30 minutes or so. And then it would go back off, and then come back on again, and go back off. And so we ended up getting up to about 60. But that was... that was after some really, really sort of difficult moments. And now we don't have water. So that's the other side of it now. We actually have a water outage.

MATT GALLOWAY: And we should just say, like 40 degrees is like four degrees Celsius. That's cold.

BIKO GRAY: Yes, it is... it is incredibly cold, especially when you're trying to huddle together and stay warm, and especially when you also don't have water. And so you're trying to, you know, like how do you... how do you heat up water to take care of yourself, you know, in terms of bottled water? And so it was... it was definitely a mess. I'm not even going to sugarcoat it.

MATT GALLOWAY: When did you decide that's it, we can't stay here, we got to get out?

BIKO GRAY: We got out relatively, relatively soon, but ended up coming back. And so we, I think, after about fifteen hours without power and without water, we called a friend who said they'd be willing to keep us up. So we decided to go there for a day or so, and then we end up coming back and thought we were going to come back to power, and we did not. I'm actually waiting to drive back to my apartment to see if we have power now. They're saying most power is restored, but you never know with the grid that is as unmaintanenced and deregulated as this one is.

MATT GALLOWAY: You can hear it in your voice, some frustration of the situation that you find yourself in. And there's been a lot of finger-pointing over the last few days about this. What is most frustrating to you about what led to the situation you find yourself in?

BIKO GRAY: It's a fundamentally preventable problem. It is one thing for Texas to experience snow. It is another thing for the energy capital of the world or energy capital at least of this particular country to fall apart from under, you know, a few inches of snow. What we found out throughout all of the investigative reporting that was happening locally is that in 2011, ERCOT had been encouraged to winterize their grid, and they didn't. They didn't to cut costs. They didn't have to keep things cheap. And at the end of the day, that grid... we just... we just saw, you know, like you said, upwards of 30 people across the country, and I believe, 26 people across Texas, die in the wake of just absolute deregulated and unregulated grid in the name of capitalist expansion. For me personally, that... that is that is something that frustrates me more than anything else. Politicians pointing fingers at power companies or an individual consumer is absolutely ridiculous. Everyone knew this was a problem, and they decided to let it be. And that's the thing... that's why the grid failed. The grid failed because it wasn't winterized. Not because the wind turbines fell apart, but because the wind turbines weren't winterized to be able to handle this. And that... that's a completely different situation, yes.

MATT GALLOWAY: Before I let you go, I mean, what do you, aside from the heat coming back on and the water coming back on, what are you hoping comes out of this?

BIKO GRAY: What am I [chuckle] hope, and what's reality, in my mind, are two different things. What I would love to see come out of this is that Texas actually become part of the federal grid. That it actually ends up being regulated. That's the first thing. That this grid actually becomes part of the national grid, so that we can have requirements that people are taken care of in that way. The second thing is a clean slate politically from both parties. I think that the governor has absolutely failed in his mandate to take care of people. And I think that many, even of many Democratic folks down here are so capitalist in their mindsets that they have pay too close attention to profits and not enough attention to people in the same way that the COVID pandemic has ravaged lives because of outright neglect. We're seeing something very similar right now, so I would love to see new politicians.

MATT GALLOWAY: Take care of yourself, man. I really appreciate speaking with you.

BIKO GRAY: Thank you. I appreciate you.

MATT GALLOWAY: Biko Gray has been without power this week. He was in Houston, Texas, in his car, staying warm. As of yesterday, the electricity grid in Texas, the operator there didn't have a firm idea as to when power would be restored, and rolling blackouts are continuing. So, as you've been hearing, does the finger-pointing, Emily Grubert says it's a sign of a broader problem, one that goes well beyond Texas. She's an assistant professor of environmental engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Emily, good morning to you.

EMILY GRUBERT: Good morning. Thanks for having me.

MATT GALLOWAY: Thanks for being here. For a layperson who doesn't understand the intricacies of a power grid, what caused this grid to go down in Texas?

EMILY GRUBERT: Essentially, extreme weather conditions that were well outside of design parameters for the grid. And I think one of the things that's coming out, and as we're talking about this going forward and thinking about what actually happened on a technical level, there's going to be a lot of questions about whether there should have been outside of design parameters? So thinking about things like weatherization is going to be a big part of this conversation. That said, the whole grid was basically subject to very extreme conditions that it was not designed to handle.

MATT GALLOWAY: Help me understand that. I mean, you've worked in Saskatchewan.

EMILY GRUBERT: [chuckle] Yes!

MATT GALLOWAY: It's minus-20 there this morning. There are a lot of other places in Canada right now with weather conditions comparable to what we're seeing in Texas, but we're not getting widespread outages here. What's the difference?

EMILY GRUBERT: So one of the big ones, and I think a really pretty visceral picture that's been posted around the last couple of days, is a lot of the power plants in Texas are actually exposed to the elements in a way that's not that common in much colder places. So I think this comes as a surprise to a lot of people in colder areas, but they might not have walls even in quite the same way. They might not have insulated pipes, things like that. Some of that is probably reasonable. So the example that I've been getting a lot the last couple of days is that you would not necessarily expect a southern Texas city to have a whole snowplow fleet, for example. It's just not something that you would have ever thought was worth the investment. That said, you probably expect them at least to have some snow shovels and to think hard about whether there is a condition under which they would need the snowplows. It's a lot like that for the power plants as well.

MATT GALLOWAY: There have been a lot of explanations floating around, and a lot of finger-pointing as well, as we were hearing. Take a listen to what the governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, told Fox News earlier this week.

GREG ABBOTT: So this shows how the Green New Deal would be a deadly deal for the United States of America. Our wind and our solar got shut down, and they were collectively more than 10 per cent of our power grid. And that thrust Texas into a situation where it was lacking power in a statewide-basis.

MATT GALLOWAY: Emily Grubert is over reliance on wind and solar power to blame for these outages?

EMILY GRUBERT: Absolutely not. And that framing is honestly pretty offensive, given the way that this has affected so many people across the state of Texas. As the governor points out, it's about 10 per cent of what the ERCOT system actually relies on during the part of the winter that we're in right now. What we've seen is that outages on the rest of the system, the other 90 per cent. So the the coal, the gas and to some extent the nuclear units as well, those have failed at a rate that leads to about an order of magnitude more capacity being out. So what we really saw was that although there was some expectation for some of the renewables to be less available because they have forecasts and things like that, a lot of the thermal plants, the natural gas plants, in particular, failed very unexpectedly in a really pretty significant way.

MATT GALLOWAY: No shortage of politicians who are willing to offer explanations. I want you to listen now to Beto O'Rourke, former Democratic congressman and presidential candidate. He was speaking on MSNBC. Here's a bit of what Beto O'Rourke thinks is behind the grid collapse.

BETO O'ROURKE: So much of this was avoidable. Going back to the deregulation of our electricity grid here in Texas, which has created an incentive to actually not weatherize or protect against these events so that some of your plants can be shut down and you can profit from the spiking prices for energy and electricity.

MATT GALLOWAY: Biko Gray raised the issue of deregulation. Are the power outages in Texas a result of deregulation?

EMILY GRUBERT: I think there's a lot of conversation still to come about how much that contributed. My feeling, in general, is that we'll know a lot more later. That said, what we see is that this really extended extreme event across the entire grid was a big challenge that probably would have been a pretty big challenge regardless. But the types of investments that are encouraged by a purely market-based system probably do look pretty different than one that's regulatory managed in a different way.

MATT GALLOWAY: What did the deregulation do? I mean, aside from, you know, people said that this lowered electricity costs and a lot of people in some ways to choose the electricity packages that they had. What did that do in terms of creating the incentive to invest in... in a grid so that it would be resilient?

EMILY GRUBERT: Yeah, it's a good question. And I think one of the things that may be interesting to recognize here is that a lot of the way that the Texas system works is to try to encourage people to invest in power generation on the promise essentially that there will be some very high-price periods occasionally. So instead of paying kind of a uniform amount throughout the year to encourage excess capacity, incentivizing people to be available when power conditions are really severe by having these very, very high prices. I think one of the things that is showing the potentially some of the boundaries of that in this particular event is that power prices this week did hit their market cap, which is something that not everywhere has, but Texas does. So we were seeing prices like, you know, nine thousand dollars a megawatt hour or more for a lot of this power when you usually see something in the range of 30. So quite, quite high. Even still, a lot of power plants weren't available. And so when we think about what actually is going wrong here, it's not that there wasn't a huge financial incentive to participate. It's that people failed to anticipate this consequence, actually, you know, making sure that their power was not actually available under these circumstances. So it's unclear that making that price cap higher would have helped? Maybe something along the lines of, you know, testing things under these types of conditions or planning more robustly for these types of extreme events would have been more effective.

MATT GALLOWAY: We're just about out of time. But very briefly, do you see a connection between what's happening in Texas and what we saw in California, for example, earlier this year?

EMILY GRUBERT: Yeah, absolutely. And I think the real lesson here is that we are going to face emergency systems on the grid. There's a lot of debate about why, I think, extreme events as a result of climate change are certainly part of the conversation going forward for all grids. What we really need to do is ensure that we have emergency planning systems in place so that when the grid does fail, we actually know how to keep people safe.

MATT GALLOWAY: It's great to talk to you about this, Emily. Thank you very much.

EMILY GRUBERT: Thank you.

MATT GALLOWAY: Emily Grubert is an assistant professor of environmental engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. She was in Atlanta. What is the role that climate change played in these storms in the United States and parts of Canada as well? Judah Cohen is director of seasonal forecasting at Atmospheric and Environmental Research. Judah, good morning to you.

JUDAH COHEN: Good morning.

MATT GALLOWAY: What is the role that climate change is playing in what we're seeing right now in Texas?

JUDAH COHEN: Yeah, so we all know that the globe is warming, but it's not uniform. And... and that's key. It's warming faster in the Arctic region than anywhere else on the globe, two to three times faster. And even in the Arctic, that warming is not uniform. It's kind of focussed in... in certain areas. And one area in particular near Scandinavia and Urals. And that warming that's occurring there is very favourable or optimal for disrupting the polar vortex. And we do know that after a disruption of the polar vortex, we get, you know, an increased probability or likelihood of severe winter weather. So so some idea, there are two main ideas of how climate change can make make for more severe winter weather. But the idea that I've been arguing for, you know, over two decades now goes through the polar vortex. And the polar vortex is in the stratosphere.

MATT GALLOWAY: What does that mean, disrupting the polar vortex?

JUDAH COHEN: So polar vortex is an area of low pressure. I like to think of it as to give you the analogy that it's a fast-spinning top. In its typical stat, it's you know, it's a fast rotating top. The rotation is tight.

MATT GALLOWAY: Right.

JUDAH COHEN: It's quiet. It sits... tends to sit in one place. So it sits over the North Pole. And then that's the typical state and it keeps all the cold air close to it, you know, like close to the vest, right? Keeps it close to to the... to the centre of the polar vortex. But there are times, and I try to argue that this warming Arctic leads to more energy that escapes from where... where our weather occurs, where we live in the troposphere to the stratosphere. And that's where the polar vortex resides. And it kind of bangs on this top, right, this polar vortex top. And when the polar vortex gets banged on, just like the fast-spinning top, it starts to slow down, it wobbles, it meanders. And I also like to say, once... where the polar vortex goes, so goes the cold air. So in a typical state, the polar vortex is sitting right over the North Pole. All the cold air is kept close to it, the centre of the polar vortex over the Arctic, and it's milder at lower latitudes, you know, across the mid latitudes of, you know, even southern Canada, the U.S. And then when you have these polar vortex disruptions, and that polar vortex starts meandering, you know, across different parts of the hemisphere, goes to Eurasia, it goes to Canada, goes to the U.S., it brings with it the cold air. And again, so I'm just arguing these events where you gain these disrupted polar vortex, where this top is getting banged around and is wobbling and meandering is occurring more frequently now than it used to because of climate change, but in particular, Arctic change.

MATT GALLOWAY: People have talked about, and you've used this phrase, weather,whiplash. What is is that and is that something that we should get used to?

JUDAH COHEN: Yes, so, yeah, I really like the term weather whiplash. I mean, the thinking in the climate community is that, you know, swings are these kind of oscillating or swinging between extremes or seesawing, let's say, between extremes should decrease because we're just mostly we're losing a lot of the cold and, you know, of the of the extremes. And we're just gaining more of the warm extremes. But I've tried to argue that not necessarily, and that we could... we could see more kind of wild swings between really warm and cold temperatures, because I've tried to argue there are two aspects to climate change. So most the community says there's only really one thing we need to consider, that climate change will lead to milder winters, less snowfall. I'm trying to argue well, but it also leads to this more frequent disruption of the polar vortex. And then you get this increase in severe winter weather, cold temperatures and snow. So you can go... so climate change can give you both, you know, the heat extremes, but also the cold extremes. And you can very quickly kind of whipsaw a windshield wiper effect between... between these extremes. And it's certainly in Canada, I think you guys have a really great example of that. You know, this winter, I mean, the winter started out very mild, I think in January, got record warm for, you know, throughout Canada. And now you're... even though Texas has gotten most of the news because the infrastructure collapse, but Canada also had a pretty rare event of widespread cold where the entire country was below freezing at the same time. And it doesn't happen that often.

MATT GALLOWAY: So just in the last minute or so that we have, what should we be doing to better prepare ourselves to deal with this if this is going to be something that we're going to be facing in years and decades ahead?

JUDAH COHEN: Yes, again, I think we need to take a fuller view of climate change, not to be... not have blinders on. And this is my only opinion. But that climate change doesn't only have to lead to milder winters, less snowy winters, that there is an aspect, a factor of climate change, that we really didn't, I think, consider before that that can lead to more severe winter weather. So, you know, winter isn't dead, you know? The rumours of my demise are premature, as Mark Twain said [Matt chuckles]. The winter is not is not dead just yet. It might be shortened, but it could also come in these brief, more intense periods.

MATT GALLOWAY: And appear in places where people wouldn't expect it to appear?

JUDAH COHEN: Yes, Yeah. And so, again, when the pole in the polar vortex moves from the... From the pole and it goes south, [chuckle] it takes the cold with it south to places that are not accustomed to that kind of cold.

MATT GALLOWAY: Juda, good to speak with you about this. Thank you very much.

JUDAH COHEN: It was a pleasure. Thank you.

MATT GALLOWAY: Judah Cohen is director of Seasonal Forecasting at Atmospheric and Environmental Research, and he was in Newton, Massachusetts. Your CBC News is up next. And then,.

MAN: A lot of people on both sides of the border that have been waiting for a year to do some visiting.

MATT GALLOWAY: The U.S. border remains closed to all but essential travellers. And that is being felt particularly acutely in Stanstead, Quebec, where travelling between countries used to be a daily occurrence. The town is split by the border, part of it in the United States, part of it in Canada. And that, Stanstead, Quebec, is the next stop on our virtual road trip. We are rolling into town to talk about what a border means in the midst of a pandemic, and how that town, which is divided, has actually come together to protect its most vulnerable residents. That's coming up in six minutes time. I'm Matt Galloway. You're listening to The Current. On CBC Radio One. Stay with us.

Canada’s Road Ahead: Stanstead, Que., and a border town divided

Guests: Chris Planetta, Dona Rolfe

MATT GALLOWAY: Good morning, I'm Matt Galloway. You're listening to "The Current".

[Music: Theme]

MATT GALLOWAY: Still to come, look up, way up, to Mars as NASA prepares for the Perseverance rover to land on the Red Planet later today. But first, snacks? Check! Coffee? You bet! Soundtrack? Of course! Ready to hit the road!

[Music: Theme]

MATT GALLOWAY: This week, on our virtual road trip, "Canada's Road Ahead", we head to small-town Quebec. About as far south as you can get, right at the border with Vermont, is the town of Stanstead. CBC reporter Spencer Van Dyk met up with the Wood family there. Three generations of that family, including a new baby, live on the Canadian side of the border. And Great Grandma lives across the border in the town of Derby Line, Vermont.

JASMINE WOOD: My name is Jasmine Wood. I'm 23.

SPENCER VAN DYK: And tell me about your daughter.

JASMINE WOOD: Well, she's Elizabeth. She's about, well, she's four months now.

LAURA WOOD: I'm Laura Wood, and I'm 43.

JASMINE WOOD: Um, basically where we are is near the post office.

LAURA WOOD: A minute walk from half the library.

JASMINE WOOD: OK, so about a minute walk in the Haskell left is the bridge that goes towards the customs.

SPENCER VAN DYK: OK, let's walk up the hill, we'll go to the library. The RCMP officer up there already saw me taking pictures earlier.

LAURA WOOD: Yeah, they might come and ask us questions or.

SPENCER VAN DYK: How many times have you been able to come and meet up with your mom at the border in the last year?

LAURA WOOD: Maybe twice. And I think she's done it three times. I don't do it too often because it's hard. [laughing] Her baby shower was when we did it. When I did it the last time. And I don't know, she wants our Grammy there, which makes me want my Mommy, and then emotions because, you know, that's my kid. And it's... it's hard.

JASMINE WOOD: Kay, well then let's walk. Let's go see her, yeah?

MATT GALLOWAY: Now, in non-pandemic times, laura says that she would be over at her mom's practically every weekend. Now, though, the border is closed up tight. And they have to be content to meet up at a distance by the town library, where a row of flower pots along the border line actually shows where Canada stops and the United States begins. It is a bitterly cold day, and little Elizabeth is bundled up in her snowsuit. So her great grandma, Melinda, can at least get a little peek.

LAURA WOOD: Oh, she's really out! Yeah, she just barely fell asleep. [Melinda chuckles] So originally, Laura said she wanted to go up my street, but they plow all the snow like... see like it is here, both sides, the Canadians are plowing it up by the gate, and then the Americans plow out their side. But this morning they cleaned out the American side. But you wouldn't have been able to get in. I can go there, but you will never be able to.

MATT GALLOWAY: Melinda and her granddaughter Jasmine talk about what they used to do before the pandemic hit.

LAURA WOOD: You walk over.

MELINDA: Yeah, she walks over.

JASMINE WOOD: Yeah, I do, actually. [chuckling] Yeah, I walk over.

MELINDA: Before it got closed, she'd say, oh, what are you doing for dinner tonight? And then she'd walk over and we'd go out somewhere for dinner. Her son used to come over and mow my lawn.

LAURA WOOD: And shovel the driveway.

MELINDA: So since last March, I've been stuck having to do it all myself! [laughing].

LAURA WOOD: Oh there, she's smiling!

JASMINE WOOD: She won't do it. I've already tried! [blowing raspberry] She just laughed.

MELINDA: I saw her stick her tongue out.

JASMINE WOOD: [ making a throat check sound] Ah! Lately, she's been more talkative. Well, baby noises, obviously.

MELINDA: Look, it's Gammy! Hi!

JASMINE WOOD: We're starting to find out she's pretty ticklish around the neck, but yeah, any little noises seems to get her really going. When she laughs, she kind of makes like a squawking. It's kind of funny and really adorable, to be honest. [laughing]

LAURA WOOD: A lot of families are separated with the border. There's... I mean, my neighbour, her brother lives over here.

MELINDA In the summer, last summer, you could drive by here on the weekends and there would be tons of people all lined up here meeting up because they, you know, that's the only way they could. We didn't do that that much, though. [laughing].

LAURA WOOD: We did it mostly on her baby shower.

JASMINE WOOD: And we did it virtual.

MELINDA Yes.

SPENCER VAN DYK: Yeah, so tell me about the baby shower and... nd your other meetings here at the border. What have those been like for you guys?

JASMINE WOOD: Well, it definitely wasn't... Wasn't the same. [breaking down] It also didn't feel right, especially since we're extremely close, so it wasn't right at all. Yeah, I found out in March that I was pregnant when I was going for other medical issues. And last time I saw my grandmother was actually back in February.

MELINDA Yeah, I definitely would have been over there are a lot more, especially while she was pregnant and when she had the baby. You know, I've only seen her a few times in-person. I think they might open by fall --

LAURA WOOD: Fall, before her birthday.

MELINDA A year-and-a-half. Oh, so speaking of, she just mentioned her birthday. Hopefully they have it open for her birthday.

JASMINE WOOD: You want to say bye to Grammy? Say bye, Grammy!

MATT GALLOWAY: Now, the building next to where the Wood family was meeting is a landmark in Stanstead, the Haskell Free Library and Opera House sits quite literally on the border. Inside, there's actually a black line that's painted right down the middle of the hardwood floor, indicating the divide between Canada and the United States. This building isn't just a library. There is a performance space upstairs. And normally, that space is home to a theatre troupe called the Borderline Players, made up of members from both Canada and the U.S. Chris Planetta is on the board of the Borderline Players. He's also a member of the Border Curling Club in town. Chris, good morning.

CHRIS PLANETTA: Good morning. How are you?

MATT GALLOWAY: I'm well, thanks. How typical is that scene that we just heard, a family meeting up along the border?

CHRIS PLANETTA: Oh yeah, definitely. That's been pretty common around here for the last year, for sure.

MATT GALLOWAY: The family was standing right next to these flower pots. The flower pots are famous. Just describe them for me?

CHRIS PLANETTA: The flower pots run straight across the borderline there. The flower pots were put in, I think, about 15 years ago now to block off the end of one of the roads there. Back in the day, you could just drive right down one road, and you could... there's a couple of ways of getting at the customs building, and that was one of them. But that's road's been blocked off.

MATT GALLOWAY: And the way that they were describing it, I mean, the border cuts right through the town.

CHRIS PLANETTA: Yes, that's right. Yeah, most Canadians aren't aware of that, but it does, the borderline cuts right through the town. The town's been cut in half. The closest gas station to my house is in Vermont. The closest Walmart to my house is also around Newport, Vermont. So it's a little different change around here for sure.

MATT GALLOWAY: And is it a very clearly indicated and marked border? I mean, do you know where you are from one side or the other?

CHRIS PLANETTA: It is now, yeah. There's... there's markers along it. There's gates that have been installed over the last 15 years. There's flowerpots in some areas and gates at the end of some roads. So it's gotten a little tighter around here.

MATT GALLOWAY: I ask in part because the reporter of ours who went up and met up with that family actually got a warning from the RCMP when she accidentally stepped across the borderline very, very briefly. So, I mean, they... they take this very seriously.

CHRIS PLANETTA: They do now with the border being closed, for sure. In normal times, the RCMP are parked there. There's border security on the other side, but Canadians can access the Haskell Library. That is our town library. So we can, as long as you stick to the sidewalk, you can walk straight by those flower pots and straight into the building and get your books and DVDs and you can walk out, or you can enjoy a show at the Haskell Opera House without any trouble as long, as you return to your country of origin when the show is over, when you're done at the library. But now that the border is closed, of course, they're much more strict.

MATT GALLOWAY: And does it feel like part of the city... or part of the town is missing with the library not open right now?

CHRIS PLANETTA: Yeah, definitely. I mean, it's definitely a loss for me in particular. I mean, I'm involved in a theatre company at the Haskell, so normally I'd be down there quite regularly, spring, summer and fall. And now, of course, that hasn't happened in a year. So, it's definitely a change of pace for me.

MATT GALLOWAY: Tell me about the company, the Borderline Players?

CHRIS PLANETTA: So a few years ago, we got together. There was a long-time theatre group running in the Haskell. And the woman that was running that in Vermont retired. So a few that were in shows and enjoyed the theatre got together and teamed up and created the Borderline Players, which is a not-for-profit community theatre group. And we put on shows, usually a comedy in the spring, and a summer musical, and then a fall kind of a thriller, I guess you'd say, in the fall.

MATT GALLOWAY: When did you realize that you'd have to put the brakes on it?

CHRIS PLANETTA: It was March 2020. Yeah, we were in rehearsals for the May show, May 2020 show. And then, of course, as things were ramping up around the world, and as the border shut down, we could no longer rehearse, we could no longer keep that going.

MATT GALLOWAY: Must have been hard to make those calls.

CHRIS PLANETTA: Yeah, well, it was disappointing. I'm trying to be optimistic, though. I mean, I guess I take comfort in the fact that no one is able to do it. It's not just us. I mean, there's no theatres running around the world right now. There's no community theatre. Broadway is shut down. So I can't feel too badly about it.

MATT GALLOWAY: And it's not just the theatre, it's also the curling. Tell me about the curling club? [chuckling]

CHRIS PLANETTA: Yeah. So the curling club is just a few hundred metres, I guess, a few hundred feet from the border. It's here on the Canadian side in Beebe, Quebec. And half the members are in Vermont. Half the members are from the area here in southern Quebec. And it was some some meetings last fall, or last summer even to see if we were going to open at all? Can you run a curling club? Can you have competitions? Can you have it to be a fun, enjoyable experience with only the Canadian members around? So it, you know, we decided to open for the season. We decided to put the time and energy into it. The Americans that enjoy curling, they paid their their dues for the season. They still bought their membership for the season, knowing that it's going to be in place for next year and to keep the whole place running. And, unfortunately, with being in a red zone here in Quebec, we haven't been able to curl for the last month, month-and-a-half here. There's just one of the regulations is you can't be gathering in indoors like that.

MATT GALLOWAY: You've hinted at this. But I mean, again, in normal times, how often would you be going back and forth across the border?

CHRIS PLANETTA: Oh, at least a couple of times a week. I mean, we rehearse for shows two or three times a week, our rehearsal space, between the Haskell, we get the Haskell for performances. But much of our rehearsing is done in Vermont, just over the line there. There's this auditorium space in the church that we can have and use to rehearse in. So normally, I would be crossing the line three or four times for rehearsal, plus gas, plus Walmart, plus some groceries sometimes. So it's really strange that I can't go 200 metres south of my house.

MATT GALLOWAY: It's interesting that you call it a line and not a border. I mean, that says something about how you think of, you know, what... what the line is between the two countries.

CHRIS PLANETTA: Yeah, well, it's... it's been pretty, I mean, it's been getting tighter and tighter over the last 15 or 20 years, for sure. As I said before, that used to be roads where you could accidentally drive down the road and end up in the wrong country. But, yeah, I guess, psychologically, I think of it as a line, you know, where you just have to make a quick check in at customs and then you can go get your gas and groceries and then go home. And, you know, it really is a community that's been cut in half.

MATT GALLOWAY: Has there been any special dispensation given to members of that community who need to cross the border, just in terms of, I mean, essential workers, people who might live in one place and work somewhere else, what have you?

CHRIS PLANETTA: Oh, yeah, the essential workers, like anywhere else, like Windsor-Detroit, the essential workers are still allowed to cross. I don't exactly know what permit they have, but if you live in one country and work in the other, those people are still allowed to cross. They're considered essential workers.

MATT GALLOWAY: But when you say like it's a community that's been cut in half, I mean, obviously, you understand the implications of, you know, the public health crisis that we're in. But does part of you kind of just wonder why it is in a little community that people can't go back and forth for things as simple as... as a curling game or theatre or even to go to the library?

CHRIS PLANETTA: Yeah, for sure. I mean, there's different ways of doing it. I mean, there's obviously an absolute shutdown going on right now. But even that family that you were talking to earlier. Like, it's too bad people can't apply for some kind of day pass almost as what I was thinking of, especially once they started, once the government started allowing people that are in Montebello, New Brunswick, to cross into Maine for some supplies, or people that are in that section of Ontario that's also a part of Minnesota. Those people were allowed to cross without the quarantine and without any hassles. I kind of thought that this area would start being opened up a little bit, like almost going along the border with special permits, I guess, for people that do live here.

MATT GALLOWAY: Has all of this made you think differently about the border and about the relationship that you have with your U.S. neighbours?

CHRIS PLANETTA: Yeah, for sure. I mean, it's been weird not being able to see people for going on a year now, my Vermont neighbours anyway. So it is definitely a challenge from some times. But at least we live in a time where there is Zoom and there is ways of making connections that way. So it is definitely frustrating, you know, with the curling club basically shut down and the Haskell Opera House shut down. So those are a couple of big features in my life that have been on hold.

MATT GALLOWAY: What are you looking forward to when the border finally opens back up? I mean, can you imagine what things are going to be like?

CHRIS PLANETTA: I can imagine. I imagine... I've seen the border on long weekends, you know, where there's a flood of cars lined up on the highway and a row of cars in town waiting to get into the States. And I imagine it's going to be just like that. There's a lot of people on both sides of the border that have been waiting for a year to do some visiting, just like the people, just like the family that you spoke to earlier. So it's going to be an interesting day in town. I don't know if they're just going to go... I don't know what the opposite of cold turkey is, [Matt chuckles] but if they're just going to open it up wide the other way and just say, OK, as of 9:00 a.m. on Friday, it's open, and then everyone's just going to flock here from miles around.

MATT GALLOWAY: And what about for you? I mean, what do you have lined up to get back onto the stage once the players are back in action?

CHRIS PLANETTA: Well, we were rehearsing for "Noises Off", which is one of my favourites, for last spring. I had a role in that. It's a fun show. It's a comedy. We also have "The Addams Family Musical". We have that scheduled. I'm looking forward to getting back on stage. I'm looking forward to getting back on the curling club as well.

MATT GALLOWAY: Good luck. And I hope it's not too long before you're out throwing rocks down the ice and on stage as part of the players. Chris, thank you.

CHRIS PLANETTA: Hey, thank you so much. Yeah, I appreciate that.

MATT GALLOWAY: Take care. Bye-bye.

CHRIS PLANETTA: Take care. Bye-bye.

MATT GALLOWAY: Chris Planetta is on the board of the Borderline Players in Stanstead, Quebec, as well as a member of the Border Curling Club. He's also a high school biology teacher. Now, for some people in this town, the pandemic means taking a break from the activities they love and not seeing the people they love, particularly if they're separated by that international border. But for residents and staff of the local nursing home, Manoir Stanstead, this pandemic has meant seeing a whole lot more of each other. And that is because earlier this winter, for the second time in a year, the staff moved in with the residents that they take care of. Donna Rolfe is assistant director of the home. Donna, good morning.

DONNA ROLFE: Good morning.

MATT GALLOWAY: Tell me why you decided to move into the home that you work in?

DONNA ROLFE: We decided because we were notified that our residents would have to have their meals in their room, not in their dining room. And to us, that was just not human, looking at four walls all the time, and we'd just take them a tray and pick it up. And that was the only time they really got to socialize with each other is in the dining room. They still had their six-feet distance as they were eating, but they could at least see people because most of our residents, their families were supporting us so much of trying to keep the COVID out, they weren't coming to visit. So we were in our own little bubble.

MATT GALLOWAY: Yeah.

DONNA ROLFE: Pretty much. But we just didn't think it was human to make them stay in their room. By us staying in with them, we were all in our own little bubble for 30 days. They could come to the dining room, and they got more one-on-one with us for the ones that the families didn't come. And we did it for them.

MATT GALLOWAY: How many of you moved in?

DONNA ROLFE: Fifteen.

MATT GALLOWAY: Fifteen. And where were you staying?

DONNA ROLFE: We had our own rooms there. We had some rooms that was empty. So we all took a room and we furnished it with our stuff [both chuckling] and stayed there with them.

MATT GALLOWAY: And the way that you describe it, there's a real generosity in you talking about what you felt the residents needed, saying the situation they were in wasn't human and what have you. But I think for a lot of people, I mean, that would be a big step to take to move in there. You have to sacrifice a lot. You leave your own families behind. What was that decision like for you? I mean, walk me through how you yourself made that decision that this was the right thing to do in this moment?

DONNA ROLFE: Well, we're in a small community here, and it's like most of our residents are from our community and we know them personally. And a couple of our staff members have their parents there as well. And so it wasn't a hard decision. We just felt like we... we have our lives. We know we can come back home. And... but most of our residents are over 90. And we wanted to give them the best that we could give them.

MATT GALLOWAY: And this is the second time that you've done this?

DONNA ROLFE: Yes.

MATT GALLOWAY: You mentioned the community. I mean, I can imagine that, you know, word would get out pretty [chuckling] quickly that this was happening. How did people in the community respond?

DONNA ROLFE: Oh, they were thrilled that we were doing this for their families and for the community. They were sending us cards. They were sending thank you's. We were getting emails constantly of thanking us. And they would put up, at Christmas time, they put trees outside in the front for us. The community has been excellent, and they've been very thankful that we did this for them.

MATT GALLOWAY: What did the card say?

DONNA ROLFE: Thank you. You're my heroes. And they sent cards to residents saying, you guys are lucky, you have angels looking over you. Different sayings like that, you know, appreciating it.

MATT GALLOWAY: What's it like to be called a hero?

DONNA ROLFE: I don't feel like I'm a hero. I just feel I'm doing what I have to do to help these people. And I'm a strong believer what goes around comes around. Maybe someday I will need that! [laughing]

MATT GALLOWAY: That's the right approach! Now, I mean, you sacrifice things when you're in there, and you missed some stuff, I'm sure, while while you weren't at home. What did you miss?

DONNA ROLFE: Well, it's just my husband and I here, but I did miss I just had a new grandson born while I was locked in. So even to this day, I've only seen pictures of him.

MATT GALLOWAY: Congratulations on that!

DONNA ROLFE: Thank you.

MATT GALLOWAY: But so when will you be able to actually hold him?

DONNA ROLFE: I don't know? Because I'm working in a nursing home, and my daughter also works in a different nursing home, we won't get together because neither one of us want to bring it into our home.

MATT GALLOWAY: Yeah, that's got to be hard?

DONNA ROLFE: Yes. [laughing].

MATT GALLOWAY: But it says something... I mean, we've spoken with people who work in long-term care homes across this country, and the sacrifice that you're making.... I know you wont to say you're a hero, but the sacrifice that you're making and the work that you're doing really is something. Do you feel like, I mean, in some ways that that's just expected of you in this moment and that's what the job is?

DONNA ROLFE: Yes, I feel that way. And I know in a lot of homes there's been the COVID, and knock on wood. But we have not had any in our home.

MATT GALLOWAY: None at all?

DONNA ROLFE: None at all right from the beginning. All of us caregivers have had our shots for the COVID. And as of Friday, the residents will have theirs.

MATT GALLOWAY: That's fantastic! How... how have you managed not to have any cases, especially, I mean, what's happening in long-term care across the country, but also what's been happening in Quebec? How have you managed to keep it out?

DONNA ROLFE: With the support of the community and their families, like I said, a lot wouldn't come in, they would do more FaceTiming. But we've never stopped them. They're more than welcome. But we make sure they gown, down, disinfect and wear the mask, respect the six-feet, and we only let one in every 24 hours. And us, we would go from work to home only. And we would change... bring our clothes in for a week. We're working seven days on, seven days off at 12 hour shifts. We had changed it to that. If you're going to have any symptoms, you're going to have it within those seven days.

MATT GALLOWAY: Have you been able to tell the residents that the vaccines are coming?

DONNA ROLFE: Yes, we told them yesterday.

MATT GALLOWAY: What was their reaction when you said that yesterday?

DONNA ROLFE: They all stood up clapping their hands. [Matt laughs] And they've been asking us every day, when are we going to get it? When are we going to get it? [laughing]

MATT GALLOWAY: What do you think life will be like once the residents are vaccinated inside the home?

DONNA ROLFE: We will continue our safety. Because we also know we could still be carriers or, you know, this, not saying you're not going to get the virus, just probably won't get it as bad. So we will continue doing our regular and the residents are aware of that as well. But they do feel a little bit safer.

MATT GALLOWAY: When we're out of this, I mean, we're talking as part of this series that we're doing called "The Road Ahead". And people are kind of looking at what the road ahead looks like once we get through all of this. When that happens, what do you think life will be like inside the home?

DONNA ROLFE: I think we're going to end up having a new normal. I'm sure people are still going to be very cautious of any other virus coming around. And myself personally, I'm thinking because we're disinfecting, we're sanitizing all the time, we're also killing the good germs. We're bringing down our immune system as well. You know, our immune system usually fights our normal colds and stuff, but with all this disinfecting and stuff, that's my worry of after this is all over with, we'll still have to be very careful.

MATT GALLOWAY: Do you have a big party planned for... for once this is done?

DONNA ROLFE: Yes. When this is over, we will have a big barbecue with all the family. [laughing]

MATT GALLOWAY: I know you don't think you're a hero, but I think a lot of people would call you a hero, and I'm going to do that as well. Congratulations on the heroic work that you've done.

DONNA ROLFE: Oh, thank you!

MATT GALLOWAY: And it's really great to talk to you. Thanks so much.

DONNA ROLFE: You're welcome.

MATT GALLOWAY: Take care of yourself. Bye-bye.

DONNA ROLFE: Bye-bye.

MATT GALLOWAY: Donna Rolfe is assistant director at the Manoir Stanstead seniors residence in Stanstead, Quebec. Next week, the virtual road trip rolls into Sudbury, where the pandemic has brought the issue of housing front and centre. That's coming up next week on "The Current". Coming up after your regional update.

RICHARD KING: Today, I was replacing windows. Tomorrow, I'll be shovelling snow or doing the dishes. I think it's just that it's closer to real life. It's almost like family, you know?

MATT GALLOWAY: Life for people living in Kitchener Ontario's Better Tent City. That story coming up in 90 seconds. I'm Matt Galloway. This is "The Current" on CBC Radio One.

[Music: Theme]

Brock University professor on NASA’s latest mission to Mars; and tiny homes offer a solution to homelessness in Kitchener

Guest: Mariek Schmidt

MATT GALLOWAY: Hi, I'm Matt Galloway, you're listening to "The Current".

MAN: Engine ignition, two, one. And lift-off. As the countdown to Mars continues, the perseverance of humanity launching the next generation of robotic explorers to the red planet.

MATT GALLOWAY: It launched in July. Now, just over six months later, the Perseverance rover is set to land on Mars later today. But first, it has to get through the seven minutes of terror. Scientists across the globe will anxiously watch the clock as ticks towards touchdown. Mariek Schmidt is one of those scientists. She's a participating scientist with the NASA Mars 2020 mission, also an associate professor of earth sciences at Brock University. Mariek, good morning.

MARIEK SCHMIDT: Good morning.

MATT GALLOWAY: It's a big day for you. Did you get any sleep last night?

MARIEK SCHMIDT: Actually, not much. [both laugh].

MATT GALLOWAY: Walk us through what is going to, in the best-case scenario, what's going to happen later on today?

MARIEK SCHMIDT: What's going to happen is that the rover is going to land on Mars. S,o at about... the coverage, the live coverage, is going to begin around 2:15 on NASA TV. Everybody should tune in. Things will get exciting around 3:30 when it enters the Martian atmosphere. And then by 3:55, it will touch down on Mars.

MATT GALLOWAY: I like your confidence this is going to happen.

MARIEK SCHMIDT: [laughing] Of course it is. [laughing some more].

MATT GALLOWAY: In the confidence that you have, you also have to acknowledge this, as I mentioned, the seven minutes of terror. What are the seven minutes of terror?

MARIEK SCHMIDT: OK, so that refers to... that refers to the length of time that it takes for a signal to reach Earth from Mars. So as the... as the rover enters the Martian atmosphere, we... it's on autopilot. We can't we can't make any adjustments. It's just on its own. And we won't know until seven minutes after it lands that it's actually safely down.

MATT GALLOWAY: What will you do during the seven minutes of terror?

MARIEK SCHMIDT: I'll be watching on my computer, so just, you know, fingers crossed!

MATT GALLOWAY: I mean, it's remarkable when you think of it. Fingers crossed that we have sent, you know, as a species, we sent this thing to this distant planet, and we hope that it lands. Are you at all concerned that something could go wrong? I mean, how risky is something like this?

MARIEK SCHMIDT: It's always risky to land on Mars. It's always risky. So there's a lot that goes into it. But the good thing about the Perseverance rover is, and the landing system that we have, is that it's been tested. It's using pretty much the same landing system that was used for the Curiosity rover in 2012. So... so we have that confidence. Of course, it's... it's risky. And there's this, you know... you know, this strange thing that's going to happen where it's going to lower the rover down on a tether at the very end. And so that's always kind of hair-raising to think about.

MATT GALLOWAY: Can you describe the rover itself? What does it look like?

MARIEK SCHMIDT: OK, so the rover has six wheels. It is about as tall as... well, it's taller than me. It's it's about as tall as a big SUV. And it has... it has a mast that has cameras on it, as well as the super cam, which is a remote sensing instrument that will fire lasers at rocks to get the chemistry and the mineralogy. And then it has its body. [chuckle] And in that body it has a what's called the RTG. That's the... that's the nuclear power source. And then it has... it has an arm on it. At the end of the arm, it's like a big lawnmower-sized thing. [laughing].

MATT GALLOWAY: Wow!

MARIEK SCHMIDT: It's like the size of a lawnmower. That's with all the instruments on there for drilling and... and chemical instruments as well. And so that... that arm has the ability to to look up close at rocks. And it can sample rocks and deliver them to the rover's body, where there is what's called the Sample At Mars, which is basically a chemical chemistry lab, the SAM instrument. It's like a chemistry lab on the... on the rover.

MATT GALLOWAY: And it's landing in a very specific spot. Tell me about the crater that the rover will touch down in?

MARIEK SCHMIDT: We've... we've selected a place called Jezero Crater. It's a fascinating place because it looks like it once held a lake. So this crater is about 30 miles across, and there is a channel that feeds into the crater. And that... that where that channel enters the crater, there is a platform of layered sediments. And that's where river water was going really fast. And then it slowed down upon entering standing water, and it built up a platform known as a Delta. So think about the Mississippi Delta. And so the rover is actually being sent to essentially land on or around that delta. So we'll get a lot of sediments from that. And then another thing that's really cool about this particular site is that from orbit, we've been able to detect carbonate minerals. Now, carbonate minerals are pretty unusual on Mars because they form in neutral to alkaline conditions, whereas much of Mars is actually really acidic for much of its history.

MATT GALLOWAY: And so what would that mean?

MARIEK SCHMIDT: So that would mean that we have an increased likelihood for potential for past life. And that's the goal of this mission,.

MATT GALLOWAY: Past life being when?

MARIEK SCHMIDT: Between three and four billion years ago.

MATT GALLOWAY: What is your role in this?

MARIEK SCHMIDT: So I'm a participating scientist. I was selected to, you know, to just be on the science team. The science team has, you know, a couple hundred people on it. And so, my role will be to help to interpret the data and help to select samples that will eventually be returned to Earth.

MATT GALLOWAY: What are you most excited about in this work, aside from, you know, getting through those seven minutes and having this thing land [Mariek chuckles] on Mars and get out to work?

MARIEK SCHMIDT: I'm excited about discovery. So the really cool thing about working on space missions, this is actually my third, that there's always something that's unexpected. We do our homework ahead of time, but then there's something that... that you you drive up to an outcrop and you're like, oh, my God, that's... that's so amazing. And it's not what I expected at all. So I can't tell you what that's going to be just yet.

MATT GALLOWAY: I love the fact that you... I mean, this is your job, but you have the sense of wonder that all of us have, that we've sent this thing to another planet to try and figure out whether there was life there. And for those of us who, I mean, you know, we talk about this, that's really exciting. But this is your job, and you still are excited and fascinated by this?

MARIEK SCHMIDT: [chuckling] Oh, I am. Yeah, for sure. And I have two kids that are also very excited about it.

MATT GALLOWAY: What do you think is behind that? Why do you think we are so curious about life on other planets, especially Mars?

MARIEK SCHMIDT: So Mars has... Mars is most... the most like earth of any planet in our solar system. And so if there is anywhere in our solar system where ancient life could have.... could have happened other than Earth, it's there. So we want to know if we're alone. And that's the best place to look.

MATT GALLOWAY: In this whole process, when will you finally be able to exhale? A lot of things have to happen, [laughing] and have to happen correctly for the rover to get on to the ground. So when will you finally, you know, be able to exhale?

MARIEK SCHMIDT: Once... once it actually touches down and we get that picture, that first picture of the rover on Mars, that we should get that pretty quick. Four o'clock this afternoon.

MATT GALLOWAY: Good luck. And we will be watching. Thank you very much.

MARIEK SCHMIDT: You're welcome.

MATT GALLOWAY: Mariek Schmidt is a participating scientist with the NASA Mars 2020 mission. She's also an associate professor of earth sciences at Brock University. You're listening to "The Current" on CBC Radio One. My name is Matt Galloway. Stay home. That is the message we have heard time and again during this pandemic. What if you don't have a home, though? Kitchener, Ontario, a city about an hour southwest of Toronto, has one solution. Volunteers in that community have built a place that people are calling home. The CBC's Paula Duhatschek spent some time there. Here is her documentary, "Lot 42: A Better Tent City".

RICHARD KING: OK, welcome to Rick's Villa. Home sweet home. You have to actually go out on the step to change your mind. It's just a little cluttered now. It's not too bad today, but... My name is Richard King. I am currently living at Lot 42, a little community made up of the tiny houses.

PAULA DUHATSCHEK: When you drive on to Lot 42, tiny homes like Rick's line the perimeter of a big grey metal building.

RICHARD KING: Yeah, it's come a long way.

PAULA DUHATSCHEK: Until the pandemic hit,q it was a venue for parties and conferences. Now, about 50 people call this place home.

RICHARD KING: We started off a little rough, just a whole bunch of people in a hard situation all bunched together. And we've become like a pretty tight little group.

PAULA DUHATSCHEK: The cabins, too, are tight. There's just enough room for a narrow bed, a dresser, and in Rick's case, a little kitchenette he built himself.

RICHARD KING: My cereal cabinet.

PAULA DUHATSCHEK: The cabin is neat and tidy, but every corner is full of stuff. There's a guitar, DVDs, books, and there's little souvenirs he's picked up here and there.

RICHARD KING: This is my wall of knickknacks. And there's everything under the sun, from pins, to poems, feathers, you name it, it's on there, Narcan, anything.

PAULA DUHATSCHEK: Narcan is a drug used to bring someone out of an overdose from opioids. Rick's been on both the giving and the receiving end of it.

RICHARD KING: The last time really scared me. I ended up waking up at Grand River Hospital. I had no clue. I opened my eyes and I had no clue where I was, why I was there, nothing. And that was pretty scary. I've had to Narcan a fair few other people. I'm just glad I was there to be able to help them out and keep them alive.

PAULA DUHATSCHEK: Rick looks like he's seen a lot of hard things, but he also has a softer side.

RICHARD KING: And we've got comic books here, there and everywhere.

PAULA DUHATSCHEK: Do you like to colour?

RICHARD KING: I love to colour! My kids used to hate it because I'd get them the colour with me and they'd be out for ten minutes. [an out of tune strum on a guitar] And I would sit at the table with their colouring gear and spend hours, [laughing] you know? And they're like, Dad, let's do something else!

PAULA DUHATSCHEK: Rick says he hasn't done much of that since things fell apart. His marriage broke up, his dad died and he soon lost his business and his motivation. The last couple of years, he's been moving around, staying in shelters. He came here to visit a friend and decided to stay. [footsteps crunch in snow] Rick's is basically a repurposed garden shed. It costs about five thousand dollars to buy one and make it liveable. The cabins are insulated and equipped with electric heaters to keep them warm in the winter. Church groups and well-wishers in the community have paid for about two-dozen of these tiny homes. But right now, there aren't enough for everyone who wants one.

[a door knocking]

GORDON DAVIS: Hi, my name's Gordon Davis. Right now, I'm living in Lot 42.

PAULA DUHATSCHEK: So when newcomers like Gord arrive, they live in the main building. Organizers have put up tents indoors, just off the kitchen, past the pool table. [pool balls clack] On this December day, I have a mask on, but Gord and the rest of the residents do not. The idea is that you don't need to wear a mask when you're at home. And for the residents of the Better Tent City, that's what this is.

GORDON DAVIS: This is my tent. I got set up here. So, you know, I got a bed in there, A tv in the back in there, you know what I mean?

PAULA DUHATSCHEK: Gord is on the shorter side, with dark brown hair and a five o'clock shadow. For the past four years, he's been living on the streets.

GORDON DAVIS: It's... it's rough, you know what I mean? So nobody wants to be on the street, you know? But it's just... it is what it is. I've actually learned a lot from people that lived on the street, right? It's cold, you know what I mean? You got to find somewhere to go get warm so you don't get frostbite and things like that.

PAULA DUHATSCHEK: Even though Gord has a place to stay now, he still looks like someone who's ready to pick up and leave at a moment's notice. He wears his backpack and is dressed for the cold.

GORDON DAVIS: Trying to still get used to it, right? [laughing] Yeah, it's in a good palce, so. Nadine, she's got a lot of patience, you know what I mean? Yeah, she's a good woman. .

NADENE GREEN: Top of the morning to you.

PAULA DUHATSCHEK: That good woman is Nadene Green.

NADENE GREEN: I'm the site coordinator, the mama is what some people may call me.

PAULA DUHATSCHEK: Because this isn't a typical shelter, it's a skeleton crew, nadine and a helper, Alvin. A local health van stops by on Tuesdays and Thursdays. And depending on what COVID restrictions are in place, volunteers come by every day to drop off meals, or if they can, come inside to visit and cook.

DENNIS: [a tap runs] Just washing dishes for any the cooks that come in. Yeah, that cook our food so we can have a clean kitchen them.

NADENE GREEN: Dennis is doing some dishes so he can make some money, yeah. Is there dish soap, Dennis?

PAULA DUHATSCHEK: And so this is like people make money during chores?

NADENE GREEN: Well, yeah, just like dishes or the garbages is what I said. Just a little bit of money, 10 dollars per chore.

PAULA DUHATSCHEK: Nadine is in her early 50s, with short black hair and a warm smile. She's also completely unflappable.

NADENE GREEN: [laughing] Most times, they're probably one fight a day. I try to break up. Sometimes it's just a little misunderstanding. Sometimes some people are stressed out, and then a lot of people have addiction issues. Deep inside, the they need to get off the drugs. Like, it's a hard road. And I think a lot of the guys who are worried about that. They're scared because most of the guys here, they'll leave their door open. And usually at night-time, before I go to bed, I check on everybody. I usually knock, or I'll open the door. And I think people leave the door open because deep inside, they're afraid that if they're going under, then somebody can come in and save them.

PAULA DUHATSCHEK: That's a big part of what makes this place unique.

NADENE GREEN: The people that live here get to live their own life on their own terms.

PAULA DUHATSCHEK: That means you don't have to be sober to stay here. You can share a cabin with someone else. Or in the case of Paul,.

PAUL: All the special treatment, eh Roxy?

PAULA DUHATSCHEK: He can live with his dog, Roxy.

PAUL: Right, Nadene? She gets privileged, no? Like, if I didn't have her, give me something to look forward to, right? At least a responsibility where it's... right? I know I have to get up and take care of her. I enjoy it.

NADENE GREEN: Well, everything here is is nice. When I say nice, I mean, you know, because I live here, the meals are nice. I eat here, I shower here, I sleep here. So whatever I expect for myself, everybody else gets the same thing. So with me being here, it helps.

PAULA DUHATSCHEK: Nadine takes me outside to show me her tiny home.

NADENE GREEN: This is my house. I keep my door locked just so that nobody gets in trouble. It is, yeah. [crinkling] I have my bed here. All these are donations, so I have to go through them. And I have storage underneath. And my bed is way up high. [more crinkling] And I get the best sleep! [chuckling] You've never slept well until you sleep in a tiny home. That's it!

PAULA DUHATSCHEK: That's home?

NADENE GREEN: That's home! Lot 42, or Better Tent City. It's a nice little walk, eh?

PAULA DUHATSCHEK: Every week, Nadine meets with the organizers who help run Lot 42 at a downtown church.

NADENE GREEN: It's still boarded up.

PAULA DUHATSCHEK: On the way, we pass a boarded-up building. It used to be Nadine's convenience store, although it wound up being much more than that.

NADENE GREEN: When my store was here, people would sleep like in the daytime, everybody was all around.

PAULA DUHATSCHEK: When she signed the lease in 2012, Nadine wanted her store to be a place that was friendly to everyone. If someone who was homeless came in, she'd offer them something to eat or drink. Gradually, they started staying overnight.

NADENE GREEN: I would have like 30 people in the store on the floor.

PAULA DUHATSCHEK: The problem was the property owner felt this way of doing business was a little too friendly, and they hadn't agreed to this when she first rented the place. In the end, Nadine was evicted, but not before the store, and her customers caught the attention of a man who also wanted to help the homeless.

[the tolling of a grand bell]

RON DOYLE: Why don't we start with a prayer? Well, my name's Ron Doyle.

PAULA DUHATSCHEK: Ron is part of the church meeting today because he's the guy who owns Lot 42.

RON DOYLE: And I'm a retired industrialist, ran and operated, owned a stainless steel foundry for 35 years of my life. I met Nadine Green down at her variety store, housing the homeless. And I thought, wow, this is magical!

PAULA DUHATSCHEK: Ron, like Nadine, wanted to do something about the trend he was seeing, more and more people in need. He called up a friend who used to be the director of planning for the city.

RON DOYLE: I asked Jeff Willmar if he would work with me on this homeless idea?

JEFF WILLMAR: The pitch was there are a lot of people living rough on the streets in our community. And they don't seem to be able to use the shelter system that's in place.

PAULA DUHATSCHEK: So they came up with the idea of using tiny cabins as a solution. They were searching for a place to put them when COVID hit.

RON DOYLE: A light bulb came on.

PAULA DUHATSCHEK: Ron thought his empty event space would make a perfect spot, except it was.

RON DOYLE: Basically illegal. You cannot have people living in an industrial site, and you cannot have a cover, a tent inside a sprinklered building, according to the fire department. But as you can see, there's people in tents, in a sprinklered building, in an industrial site, living quite nicely. We just did it, just plainly did it. I phoned Nadene up, I said, start moving people in here. She said, absolutely. And she went out, and she gathered 15, 20 people the first night. Charities bought us tents, blankets. And the church said, I have mattresses. I'll give you a mattresses. They gave us mattresses. The community jumped on board immediately when they heard this. I actually felt sorry for the politicians.

PAULA DUHATSCHEK: The city held a special council meeting about the place. They had some conditions, like installing smoke alarms and getting an architect to take a look at the site. In the end, though, council voted unanimously on a zoning exemption to allow the community to stay for one year.

RON DOYLE: It's hard for the region in the city to work together to solve homelessness because when they get into a room and they got to get going through their laws and the rules and that the what ifs are so big that they can't take the first step. And that's... that's kind of what we did. We just damn the torpedoes. I mean, what are you going to do, put me in jail, spank me? I mean, we just opened the door and said, come on in. Live here. And it's magical in its existence. These people are running their own show. They're doing their own thing. It reminds me of any neighbourhood. There's a bit of a communal aspect to it in that they share washrooms and showers and this and that. But you don't ask permission to do something.

PAULA DUHATSCHEK: That's not to say there aren't challenges. For one thing, Jeff says magic doesn't pay the bills.

JEFF WILLMAR: So part of it is that while the operating costs are minimal, that there are operating costs. We have utility bills to pay, we have garbage to clear out, and we have --

PAULA DUHATSCHEK: Some of the costs are paid by donations. And Ron Doyle says about a quarter of the residents are also kicking in for rent. The rest comes out of his pocket. And finances aren't the only issue.

JEFF WILLMAR: You've got sort of 50 people that are now roommates that don't always get along. While they've got some privacy, they do live in close quarters. And so there are --

PAULA DUHATSCHEK: Fighting and stealing, Jeff says, are pretty common. And police say there have been more calls to the area since the Better Tent City moved in.

JEFF WILLMAR: But I think that part of the magic as to why this is working is... is Nadine Green's leadership and her influence on people that rather than being an iron-fisted authority figure, she's... she's often referred to as the mama bear who can calm people down and give them a hug and let them know that they are loved and accepted, and that really is working well for the people who settled in at the Better Tent City.

PAULA DUHATSCHEK: With the church meeting over, Nadene packs, up the left over pop and sandwiches.

NADENE GREEN: So every week when I go to the meeting, I usually take the extra lunches. And if I see anyone, just hand them out.

PAULA DUHATSCHEK: It doesn't take long before she runs into someone she knows.

NADENE GREEN: Hey.

WOMAN: Hi.

NADENE GREEN: Hi.

WOMAN: How are you?!

NADENE GREEN: I'm OK. Like, you guys want a sub?

WOMAN: Sure! And I actually wanted to talk to you about getting one of the little hat things. Are they still... like are you still giving that out, or?

NADENE GREEN: Well, we're going to be building houses inside now.

WOMAN: Really?!

NADENE GREEN: Yeah. So if you want --

PAULA DUHATSCHEK: [a construction machine beeps] Across the street from the church is a construction site where a new condo building is going up. It's a common sight in downtown Kitchener. Finding a cheap place to live has gotten much more difficult. In the last decade, average rents have increased about 40 per cent. There are thousands of people on a regional waiting list for affordable housing. And about 200 people who are chronically homeless.

NADENE GREEN: Somebody could freeze to death out here.

PAULA DUHATSCHEK: With the last of the sandwiches gone, Nadene heads back to Lot 42.

NADENE GREEN: If you can get all the bread off, maybe put it on this side, please.

PAULA DUHATSCHEK: A truck from the food bank has come by with donations. Nadene has to supervise to make sure everyone gets their fair share. It's a job that never stops. But she says quitting isn't on the table.

NADENE GREEN: I never think of packing in in, no. I never did when I had when I was at my store going through my eviction. That time was the worst time, you know, people driving by, laughing at us, a lot of ridicule, taunting us. You know, people would pass by in their cars, and they would laugh at the homeless. And I never pack it then. I had friends that just didn't... didn't want to be my friend anymore because I was helping. And I never pack it in. [in the distance] hello, how are you?

PAULA DUHATSCHEK: It isn't money that keeps Nadene going. It was about eight months into this project before she started collecting a stipend each month. Instead, her motivation is tied to an experience she had as a teenager. It's something she doesn't share with a lot of people.

NADENE GREEN: I got kicked out [slight chuckle] by my stepdad. I was so busy that time I didn't really feel anything. I still continued going to school, and I had a job so nobody knew I was homeless. And I used to sleep in a couple of hallways. That's why I know what it's like. I'm not embarrassed by it. I was at first, but now I'm proud of my journey. It will be like you're driving and you take a wrong road, and it's a rough road. But after your journey, you were like, wow, that was all right. [laughing] That's how I look at things now. And I think with the homeless people, we feel a kind of kinship with each other. And usually, I can tell who has been homeless. I can see like this one lady who donated a whole bunch of stuff, she used to be homeless at one point. And all the people who have been homeless before but are doing well now are coming together. You know, I call them soldiers. [chuckling] We're soldiers in this war.

WOMAN: OK, want me to just meet you over there?

NADENE GREEN: Yeah, Gord is going to help you.

WOMAN: OK. Hi, I'm Cheryl. Nice to meet you.

PAULA DUHATSCHEK: For Nadine in the folks who live at Lot 42, time is running out. The city's one-year zoning exemption ends in a couple of months. Jeff Willmar says organizers are in talks with the city and the region about what to do next? Right now, he says, everything is on the table, from helping residents get permanent housing, to finding a new site and a new funding model for the project.

NADENE GREEN: Are you having dinner?

NADENE GREEN: It's getting late. Rick is outside, fixing broken windows on some of the cabins. He's replaced his usual ball cap with a tuque, and is dressed for the cold in a plaid work jacket.

RICHARD KING: I overslept this morning. I Got woken up by the methadone guys at my door.

PAULA DUHATSCHEK: Methadone is being handed out here now to help some of the residents get off drugs. Rick is one of about 10 people taking part.

RICHARD KING: Just because somebody lives at Lot 42 doesn't mean, you know, they're a thief or a junkie or whatever. There's a lot of people here for a lot of different reasons.

PAULA DUHATSCHEK: That's why he hopes that no matter what happens, the spirit of this place lives on.

RICHARD KING: Here, I'm... you know, I I put my effort in. Like, I mean, today I was replacing windows. Tomorrow, I'll be shovelling snow or whatever, cleaning up inside, doing the dishes. I think it's just that it's closer to real life. It's almost like family, you know?

MATT GALLOWAY: That documentary, "Lot 42: A Better Tent City" was produced by CBC reporter Paula Duhatschek in Kitchener, Ontario, with help from Suzanne Dufraesne. And that's it for "The Current" for today. Coming up next on CBC Radio One, it's "q". Great show on the way. Angeline Tetteh-Wayoe will be there talking about her new CBC Radio program, "Welcome to the Block". It's excellent. And Stanley Tucci, who has a new film coming out with Colin Farrell and of course, we remember him from his Instagram cocktail lessons over the course of this pandemic. You'll want to listen to that. I'm Matt Galloway. Thanks for listening to "The Current". Take care. And we'll talk to you tomorrow.

[Music: Theme]

February 18, 2021 Episode Transcript

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