First Nations Reserves Emergencies

Life on remote reserves is meant to celebrate honoured traditions. Ancestors lived on the land, and the land is sacred to their memory, as well as to the traditions and the life-force of First Nations peoples. This is what they tell themselves, and this is what they intone when they defend their intransigence on insisting they must live in hard-to-reach communities. And because they are remote, so distant from what is termed 'civilization', so to speak, it is costly to live there.

Costly in the sense of having available to them all the modern conveniences that make life livable. Their ancestors provided for themselves, through hunting and fishing, and living off the land. And there were times that it was not possible to live off the land with ease, and illness and starvation ensued, and coping with dread weather conditions, and short-season harvests. Clean potable water is a current preoccupation.

As is access to health clinics and prescription drugs, and a good education for the young. Once, education meant learning from the elders how to provide for oneself off the land. It meant learning history and tradition by rote. It meant becoming capable and coping. Now there is television and there are computers and cellphones and snowmobiles. And very expensive comestibles. And no jobs.

There is also housing that the residents, since they are assigned to the houses and don't own them, feel no obligation to learn how to be self-sufficient, how to perform little acts that ensure the roofs over their families don't disintegrate through neglect. And there are tribal leaders and reserve councils who engage in that most human of activities; looking after themselves and their cronies, leaving what's left over to those whose interests they are supposed to be responsible for.

And, so at the Gull Bay First Nations, the school, Kindergarten to Grade 8, has been closed. The band is broke. There are 1,225 band members, but their newly re-elected chief, Wilfred King, lives off reserve in Thunder Bay, nearby the reserve. And though the reserve coffers have been swept clean somehow, in a manner not reflected by accounting, Chief King saw fit to throw two Christmas parties and a New Years Eve fete.

These events included dinner and live music, according to one of the attendees. Re-elected after being voted out in 2010, Chief King insists the previous band council had badly mismanaged the band's finances. He's busy cleaning up the books, preparing to re-open the school and re-staff the health clinic. But he needs help. Financing from Ottawa.

He had left the incoming government in 2010 with $1.2-million to spend. Now drained. The account that pays welfare cheques was overdrawn. "As of Monday morning, we were basically broke - bankrupt", he said. The band is struggling with frozen water pipes, no running water, crowded housing with little or no heat. As well equipment owned by the band is missing, and key posts are held by interim staff.

In short, the Attawapiskat syndrome is alive and well in Gull Bay. However, declarations that the previous administration overspent or misappropriated funds somehow, and that the incoming administration will speedily bring things up to snuff, has reverberations elsewhere, as well. Reminiscent of, for example, the 2003 entry of the Liberal government of the Province of Ontario, under its now-outgoing Premier Dalton McGuinty.

A bit of a diversion, there. Back to the present: Aboriginal Affairs is on the case, never fear. A spokesperson explains government is working with Chief King to tackle these "serious issues."  "An audit is also underway to ensure that the tax dollars invested in the community are properly accounted for", explicated spokesperson for Aboriginal Affairs, Jan O'Driscoll.

Whew! Everything is going to be all right, Federal officials promised to provide emergency funds to re-open the school and resume essential services. Aboriginal Affairs has deposited $890,502.20 into the Gull Bay Bank account. Another $100,000 is to be provided for a school inspection and repairs.  And Health Canada provided a further $280,000 last week.