Fort Good Hope, N.W.T., elders missing pension cheques

Elders in Fort Good Hope, N.W.T., have been waiting two weeks for their pension cheques. It’s the second time in seven months the cheques have been delayed.

Vicky Orlias, 72, said she and her brother, who is blind and deaf, depend on their pension cheques to pay the bills.

She said she’s worried her electricity and cable will get cut off if she doesn’t pay the bills on time.

"People keep saying ‘it’s coming in, it’s going to be here this afternoon,’ but no, nothing, and it just turns you down and you want to cry."

Old Age Security and Canada Pension Plan cheques are supposed to arrive in the last three days of the month. The last pension cheques the Fort Good Hope elders received were in April.

"We're all helping one another," said Orlias. "We try to give one another some sugar, tea whatever little we have and then mostly live on caribou, moose meat. We give one another some fish."

The cheques also went missing last November.

"It’s unbelievably frustrating for them," said Patrick Woodcock, a volunteer who works with the community's elders.

"Right now Canada Post and Service Canada are trying to locate the cheques," he said. "I want to know why this happened again."

Woodcock said he is going to get all the elders in Fort Good Hope signed up for direct deposit so their pension payments will never be late again.