(Photo credit: Solomon Cyr)
Standing Buffalo Dakota Nation is holding a 25-anniversary celebration today for their Lakeview Lodge Personal Care Home.
The care home is the country’s first ever on-reserve personal care home. The facility was initially funded by the Standing Buffalo Dakota Nation through a loan from Peace Hills Trust; it now continues to operate with financial support from Indigenous Services Canada.
Lakeview Lodge has professional nurses and personal care workers on the clock 24 hours a day and a capacity of 40 beds. The facility, which integrates Indigenous culture into its services, is geared towards individuals with disabilities and elders.
Chief Rodger Redman of Standing Buffalo Dakota Nation has been lobbying for provincial and federal funding for the Lakeview Lodge for years without any luck.
“We haven’t received additional funding or capital funding; each region has their own arrangements with the province and other federal departments. So, each region is funded differently, and it’s sad to say that Saskatchewan is probably the lowest-funded region in Canada that doesn’t really provide adequate care for their elderly and disabled,” explained Redman. “At the cost of the band, we’ve been providing this needed health care service for our members and all First Nations, from La Ronge to every corner of the province.”
Chief Redman also made a point to state that there are clear negative impacts when people with disabilities and elders on-reserve are forced out of their communities to care homes in other places.
“When they were young, they were taken from their communities, forced into residential schools, stripped of their culture, language, and identity. Now, as they get older and can’t get the care needed at home, they have to go eight hours away and relive the experiences they went through when they were young,” said Redman.
The event held today for the 25th anniversary of Lakeview Lodge is also a call to the provincial and federal governments for additional funding. Minister of Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship, Marc Miller, and, on behalf of the provincial government, MLA for Last Mountain Touchwood, Travis Keisig, are in attendance along with other leaders.
Chief Redman stated that if the care home continues to be denied funding from the government, the band is considering legal action.
‘Discrimination has to stop, and that’s what we’re saying, and if it takes our legal talent to do that, we’re looking at that because those times are gone where we discriminate because of who we are, the colour of our skin, and because we’re First Nations people, we don’t deserve the rights of everybody else; those days are gone,” stated Redman.
The event began at 12 p.m. today and wraps up at 4:30 p.m.