Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence will travel to Ottawa this week to plan for her community's immediate needs and voice opposition to third-party management.Ian Stewart
As the urgency to provide adequate housing for the people of Attawapiskat escalates this week, with temperatures expected to dip below -20C, Chief Theresa Spence will be in Ottawa discussing the community's future with other native leaders and government officials.
"I'm not really comfortable [leaving] but I have to do what I have to do as a chief," she said before flying from Attawapiskat First Nation, on the western shore of James Bay, to Ottawa on Sunday afternoon.
She said provincial emergency officials and Red Cross workers have been able to give the community some relief in the past week, monitoring health conditions and handing out heavy-duty blankets and clothes. But she said 90 people continue to reside in trailers, some in sheds and a few families in tents, where they live with mould and without basics like running water.
Ms. Spence said while she's in Ottawa she hopes to meet with regional and national chiefs and possibly John Duncan, minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development, to plan for the immediate needs of the community. As well, she said she'll be pushing back against the government's decision to put third-party management in the community to oversee finances.
"I'm hoping the government will change their mind … and work on the immediate need that's required in my community," said Ms. Spence, who declared a housing emergency in October.
Getting the community high-powered wood stoves and insulation supplies is still in the works because of lengthy ordering procedures, she said.
On CTV's Question Period on Sunday, Conservative MP Greg Rickford outlined how the federal government had stepped in during the past week.
"We have specific strategies going back more than a couple weeks for a quick turn-around on addressing substantial renovations in these homes," said Mr. Rickford, who is parliamentary secretary to the minister in charge.
He said six homes will get the renovation materials they need and the third-party manager will arrive in the community soon, although he did not provide a timeline for either. He noted that part of a recreational centre and a healing centre could provide temporary accommodation.
But Ms. Spence said the recreation centre was an "impossible" location because showers and other facilities are lacking.
NDP MP Charlie Angus voiced his disappointment with progress at Attawapiskat on Question Period.
"I felt last week was a real lost week for Canada," he said. "We've seen this horrific disintegration of this community, we had the Red Cross on the ground [and]we spent much of the last week bickering."
He said he's concerned about what will happen to the community in the long term.
"My concern is we don't really see where we're going next," he said. "You can't really keep people in that hockey arena for very long."
With a report from Shawn McCarthy