How life without a road affects Wekweètì

Facing barely a month of winter road access, expensive flights for the rest of the year and a lack of local jobs, Wekweètì’s chief is determined the community should find reasons to smile.

Chief Adeline Football says the latest plan is to host a golf tournament versus neighbouring Gamètì this year, after last summer’s wildfires postponed the event.

“I’m just hoping,” Chief Football told Cabin Radio last week.

“We wouldn’t mind hosting that in our community, because we can’t hold a big hand games tournament like other communities.”

Last month, Behchokǫ̀ held its annual hand games tournament in the presence of 64 participating teams and hundreds of spectators.

However, fly-in communities – dependent on winter roads to bring in resources that can’t fit aboard a plane – don’t often get to hold that kind of event, said Football.

The winter road connecting Wekweètì’ to the rest of the NWT and beyond normally opens around March 8 and closes again around April 15. This year, the latest update suggests construction is still taking place with extra resources brought in to help.

With one of the territory’s shortest winter road windows, residents prioritize “stocking up on dry food, lumber and heavy goods” when they get the green light to drive, Football said.

Residents, she continued, find it hard to identify steady employment, often “relying on odd jobs” and community programs to earn an income.

A round trip by plane to Yellowknife, meanwhile, can cost upwards of $800 – “really, really expensive,” said the chief – and the timings can complicate activities that should be straightforward.

A flight arriving in Yellowknife at 5pm leaves no time to visit the bank that day, for example. Doctor’s appointments need to be carefully planned. Residents race to complete shopping while on medical travel because, said Football, “that’s the only chance we’ve got.”

“It’s really hard … to live where there’s no access with roads. We have to plan ahead. We always have to plan ahead,” Football added.

‘We need studies right away’

The ultimate in planning ahead is the community’s continual lobbying for a permanent road.

Asking ministers for information about an all-season road is “always on the agenda,” Football said.

She was among community leaders effectively forming a line to ask about roads at last weekend’s NWT Association of Communities gathering in Hay River, where a number of ministers attended to take questions.

Ahead of Saturday’s Q&A with cabinet, the mayors of Norman Wells and Tulita – Frank Pope and Douglas Yallee, respectively – each told Cabin Radio the Mackenzie Valley Highway was a priority they want to see addressed.

Pope has repeatedly called for work to be accelerated on the proposed Mackenzie Valley Highway from Wrigley to Norman Wells, even heading to Ottawa to push for progress.

Barges couldn’t complete their sailing schedule last summer, in part due to low water. Pope has said that’s a vision of the future as the climate shifts, and he says the knock-on effect of that barge disruption was an inability for some medical staff to travel due to a consequent aviation fuel shortage.

Like the Sahtu communities, Wekweètì is urging the territorial government to take action.

“We need to do pre-feasibility studies right away because we’re looking at climate change. It’s changing really fast,” said Football, fearing the month-long winter road season could further shorten. Last year, the road lasted barely three weeks.

“It all comes down to the GNWT. They have to be supportive. They have to work with the ones that don’t have roads,” said the chief.

She estimates an all-season road for Wekweètì and Gamètì would cost close to $500 million.

“It takes a long time to get that. Maybe we’re looking at a decade to get that into Gamètì. Maybe two decades to get that to Wekweètì. But it is something we’re already addressing to federal ministers, and also with the GNWT,” she said.

Despite it being a priority, Football says there would be pros and cons if a permanent road ever came to pass. She notes the concerns raised when Whatì, to the south, opened its all-season road in late 2021.

“We know there’s good things that come with it and there’s also bad things that come with it,” she said.

“As a community, we need to work together to make sure that everybody is on the same page – wanting it or not wanting it.

“It’s really up to the generations that would like to have it, or the Elders that don’t want it because of the bad things that come with it.”

In the meantime, the golf tournament with Gamètì is a more tangible dream.

Wekweètì’s dedicated golfers regularly meet up for games at the community’s Dechi Laot’i Golf Course. Last fall, resident Robert Judas scored the community’s first hole-in-one.

At the time, Judas said he hoped a golf tournament between the two Tłı̨chǫ communities could become an annual event.