First Nations group in Northern Ontario demands better fire service after child’s death
Indigenous Services Minister Mandy Gull-Masty in Toronto on Thursday. Laura Proctor/The Globe and Mail A group of First Nations leaders in Northern Ontario say a house fire in a remote community earlier this week that killed a three-year-old boy was preventable, but the group says they lack equitable fire safety services.
The fire, which happened in Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug, a community of 1,500 people located nearly 600 kilometres north of Thunder Bay, has underscored long-standing concerns about fire services in remote First Nations. The Independent First Nations Alliance, or IFNA, filed a human-rights complaint about the issue last year, but they say the complaint has been stalled at the Canadian Human Rights Commission.
Now, the group is demanding the federal government take action to ensure adequate fire services in remote communities while also asking the federal Auditor-General to investigate the Canadian Human Rights Commission, which the IFNA accuses of slow-walking their complaint.
Indigenous program to protect Canadian wilderness aims to bolster First Nations’ economies Chief Carla Duncan from Muskrat Dam, a member First Nation of IFNA, said the group’s concerns are not new. “We have been raising concerns about inadequate fire safety funding for years,” Ms.
Duncan told Indigenous Services Minister Mandy Gull-Masty at an event in Toronto on Thursday. Ms. Duncan said risks “have been clearly identified, and we have said repeatedly that they put our people in danger, yet our communities are still living with limited fund and prevention supports.” “Now a child is dead.
At what point does that become unacceptable to ISC?” she said, referring to Indigenous Services Canada. “Overcrowded housing and aging infrastructure are increasing fire risks in our communities.
What is ISC doing to address these conditions as part of the fire safety?” Indigenous Services is responsible for on-reserve funding of programs and services including fire protection, using a tiered-funding system under its First Nations Fire Protection Strategy.
“With a focus on fire prevention, First Nations are expected to meet the requirements at each tier while doing the preparatory work to access funding for activities in the next tier of funding,” an online government document states.
Tanya Talaga: Kashechewan First Nation faces a new problem in its decades-long water crisis For example, capital investments for fire protection infrastructure and equipment will only be considered if First Nations are able to support the infrastructure, such as having a heated building to store a fire truck.
The IFNA says the national strategy is flawed and doesn’t consider operational costs of recruitment, training and maintenance to reach these requirements. The group says it forces First Nations to compete in a limited capital funding pool. They also say there is no legislative standard governing fire safety on-reserve the way there is for municipalities in the province.
Their human-rights complaint alleges Indigenous Services Canada has systemically discriminated against the First Nations for failing to provide equitable fire safety services to First Nations communities, particularly those in remote northern regions in Ontario.
Ms. Gull-Masty responded at the Toronto event by describing what she said are the challenges faced by ministers before her and those she herself faces as the first Indigenous minister of ISC. She said she wants to create a path that leads First Nations to independence away from her department.
“We have to work together, to collaborate, to train to do that,” Ms. Gull-Masty said. “I want to acknowledge I know that there is a life lost by a child.” The IFNA chiefs also accuse the Canadian Human Rights Commission of taking too long to address their complaint, creating a situation they say is a matter of life or death.
Véronique Robitaille, a spokesperson for the commission, declined to comment on the individual case, but said that “there is a tr…