Indigenous Services Minister Patty Hajdu speaks during an update related to the 2023 Wildfire Season in Ottawa, on June 1.Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press
Bloodvein First Nation Chief Roland Hamilton is concerned about the prospect of another wildfire, two years after his Manitoba community was forced to evacuate because of a raging fire.
He hopes there will not be a repeat this summer and is uneasy that they are not adequately prepared. “I’m pretty worried about it,” he said in an interview. “It’s been so dry this summer. You never know when it could spark a fire close by here.”
Mr. Hamilton said his community of approximately 1,300 people, located on the east side of Lake Winnipeg along the Bloodvein River, recently was sent some equipment by the federal government – hoses and a pump. But he said they have yet to acquire the firetruck they have requested.
“We still need something like a vehicle to transport the equipment,” he said.
Mr. Hamilton is among First Nations leaders across the country who have expressed concern about the impact of climate change – with severe weather events such as heat waves, floods, significant rainfalls and forest fires – and the extent to which they are prepared in case there there is an emergency.
That concern has prompted the NDP’s Indigenous Services critic Lori Idlout and her deputy, Niki Ashton, to send a letter to Minister Patty Hajdu, saying communities are in need of supports, including flood protection, increased cellphone coverage, funding and training of local firefighting crews and infrastructure spending including all-weather roads.
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Ms. Ashton, who said her northern Manitoban riding encompasses 41 First Nations communities, called this a crisis with a very human face. Communities have been devastated and some repeatedly, she said.
“These are traumatic events,” she said, adding the federal government is doing the “bare minimum, if anything at all” to support First Nations during the climate crisis.
“We’ve known for years that climate change was set to disproportionately impact Indigenous communities. And we’ve seen that in my constituency over a number of years now, with unusual weather events or the intensification of existing weather events.”
The letter to Ms. Hajdu also notes how the Auditor-General sounded the alarm about the issue in a report last year stating that “Indigenous Services Canada [ISC] did not provide the support First Nations communities needed to manage emergencies such as floods and wildfires, which are happening more often and with greater intensity.”
Over the last 13 years, First Nations communities experienced more than 1,300 emergencies leading to more than 580 evacuations affecting more than 130,000 people, the report said. It also found over four fiscal years (2018-2019 to 2021-2022) that ISC spent about $828-million on emergency management supports for First Nations. ISC also spent 3.5 times more on responding to emergencies than on supporting communities to prepare for them, the report said.
The Auditor-General’s Office said it conducted the review because emergencies have significant health, environmental and economic effects, ranging from psychosocial trauma to lost economic opportunities. Once emergencies and evacuations are over, their effects continue to be felt by communities because it can take years to fully restore services and infrastructure, the report said.
“First Nations will continue to be more vulnerable to emergencies if they are not adequately supported to prepare for and mitigate emergencies.”
In response to Ms. Ashton and Ms. Idlout’s letter, Ms. Hajdu said in a statement there have been unprecedented wildfires and flooding in recent months that have taken a “horrific toll on First Nations communities that have been disproportionately impacted.” She said her office and department work closely with chiefs and community first responders to support First Nations with what they need when they need it.
“Emergency management must be led by and for First Nations consistent with principles of self-determination,” Ms. Hadju said.
The Minister said the government has reformed the emergency-management assistance program to be more flexible and to respond to emergencies in a way best-suited for individual communities. The government welcomed the Auditor-General’s report, she added, saying she will continue to work with Emergency Preparedness Minister Harjit Sajjan to provide First Nations with what they need.
For his part, Mr. Hamilton said his worries are growing as the years go on.
“There is a lot of bush surrounding the area here around it could easily, easily come in to the community, burning homes and stuff like that. It’s a concern.”