N.W.T. woman bails sewage out of her bathtub yearly, doesn't know where to turn for help

Every winter for the past five years, Łutselk'e, N.W.T., resident Mildred Lockhart finds sewage backed up in her bathtub. 

"This year I had to bail about 16 buckets of [sewage]," she said. 

The problem usually starts around December and persists until the weather begins to warm in March. 

She says it has to do with old pipes freezing over and though the band hired someone to thaw out the sewage, the problem persists year after year.

After seeing a poster at the Łutselk'e airport for Housing N.W.T.'s emergency repair program, Lockhart applied for territorial funding.

She was told the application was denied because the homeowner's salary was too high to qualify for the program's $60,000 income cap. 

The house belongs to Lockhart's father and the funding is based on his salary. 

Meanwhile Lockhart said that "every payday, I probably have about $50 to $100, that's it, after I'm done paying my bills."

Lockhart isn't able to transfer her father's home into her own name because of outstanding arrears. 

MLA Richard Edjericon said it's an example of excessive barriers and red tape excluding many of those who need help from getting it. 

Edjericon pointed out Lockhart's sewage problem in the Legislative Assembly on March 10. 

Directing his comments to the Minister of Finance, he said "the barrier here is your policies that are prohibiting our people from getting help." 

Edjericon told CBC News that Lockhart's case is one example, but that housing issues persist all over the territory and N.W.T. Housing allows them to continue by denying funding applications. 

He pointed to the housing dollars allocated to the territory in the last federal budget and questioned what that money is going toward, if not helping residents in need.