Attawapiskat in the news again

[zzontar]

Not all of them get special privileges.

Wish we could figure out how it is spent. Those poor people!

http://www.fraserinstitute.org/research ... 2147484000

Good link, how she got re-elected is beyond me, but then there's Bush...

[hobbyguy]

Thought I'd do a little reading: http://www.ask.com/wiki/Attawapiskat_First_Nation?o=2801&qsrc=999&ad=doubleDown&an=apn&ap=ask.com

This stands out: "Additionally, the letter delivered to Chief Spence stated the audit revealed "no evidence of due diligence on the part of Attawapiskat of funding provided by Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada for housing projects and Health Canada for health-related projects."[32]"

The only economic driver in the area, besides traditional hunter-gatherer activities and government money, seems to be the Victor diamond mine (possibly closing in 2018) - which employs 100 band members. What stands out in that situation is:

"A federal review of the relationship between De Beers' Victor mine and Attawapiskat showed that government support for training and capacity did not start soon enough to deal with the huge lack of skills in the First Nation."[38]

and this: "The company has transferred about $10.5 million to a trust fund held by Attawapiskat as of January 2011"

And this stands out regarding the elementary school problem:

"Money that had been allocated for the renovation of the deteriorating physical condition of the 25-year-old frame construction school was used to fund the construction of eight double and three single portable classrooms. The recreations are basic with none of the supplementary resources schools in other parts of the province have available. Parents in the community are now starting to hold their children back from attending the school, or are seeking education in other communities. The situation is deteriorating since quality education cannot be offered in the present facilities."

It all looks pretty grim from the outside.

[Drip_Torch]

It appears to me that Mark Milke relies on his readers to use ample imagination in his "Fraser Institute" paper titled Attawapiskat and Atikokan: A tale of two northern towns.

Imagine two small Ontario towns. One is a reserve that blocks an outside investigation into its $31.2 million annual operating budget. That town, Attawapiskat First Nation, has 1,549 people on the reserve according to the last census.

http://www.fraserinstitute.org/research ... 2147484000

In my humble opinion this is an absolutely false premise that forwards an apples versus oranges comparison.

For example, how much time do you think the town council spends working out problems with the local school in Atikokan? If you answered not a second you're right, because that's a provincial responsibility. How much time do you think Atikokan spends maintaining the roads around the community? The medical clinic? The fire services? How much of their budget goes to maintaining housing for the community? How much of their budget is consumed maintaining a dysfunctional relationship with the Federal Government. If you answered none on all counts you are beginning to understand how invalid this comparison is.

Seriously, there simply isn't a valid comparison there.

How can a First Nation in "co-management", no less, possibly block an outside investigation into it's financial affairs?

It can't, in fact, the AANDC bureaucracy manages every detail of their financial affairs. Yeah, that's right, it doesn't function like a BC lottery office where the individual First Nations communities write their own winning ticket and simply go there every three months (by the way it's a bit of a trip from Attawapiskat to Ottawa) to collect their cheque.

In fairness to Mr. Milke, he wrote this paper before the federal court decided that it was “unreasonable in all circumstances” for the federal government to appoint a third-party manager to look into the financial troubles of the community of Attawapiskat.

Our Crown's relationship with First Nations peoples is dysfunctional and until we allow ourselves to honestly look at the situation we've created - we are going to continue seeing situations like this. I'd like to point out that as bad as it is looking at these stories and feeling compelled to scratch out a comment on Castanet - it's probably a whole lot worse trying to live in these situations.

[dogspoiler]

Atawapiskat has a population under 2,000 with a Chief, Deputy Chief, and 18 councilors. The report says 70 residents are living in temporary housing because the sewer system broke down 4 years ago.
What do you suppose all those people were working on for the last 4 years ?

On a side note Peachland has close to 5,000 people, A mayor and 6 councilors. They do not have any residents with homes uninhabitable because town services have failed.

There is a problem, how can it be fixed ?

[coffeeFreak]

Here's a reminder of what the originally posted topic is folks...seems some of you are easily distracted.

grammafreddy http://www.castanet.net/news/Canada/103290/70-evacuated-from-community-after-fire

70 evacuated from community after fire
by The Canadian Press - Story: 103290
Nov 23, 2013 / 7:08 am


Photo: CTV
Attawapiskat First Nation is shown in this file photo.

About 70 residents of the remote Attawapiskat First Nation in northern Ontario will be flown to Kapuskasing starting today

The band council declared an emergency this week in the James Bay coast community following a fire in a housing complex.

Charlie Angus, the NDP MP for the area, says two flights are planned, with the first scheduled to leave the First Nation around mid-day.

The Ontario government is arranging the air transportation out the community.

Angus says the housing complex is a "giant set of construction trailers with little holding cells that families are living in."

In 2011, Attawapiskat became a flashpoint for relations between the Harper government and First Nations after a housing crisis triggered a state of emergency.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper accused the band of mismanaging finances and Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence staged a six-week hunger protest over living conditions on reserves and treaty issues.

Her protest sparked nationwide demonstrations of support.

The Canadian Press

[Drip_Torch]

There is a little more to it than what's being reported too.

Attawapiskat took a triple hit.

There was a severe winter storm compounded by an extended power outage when Attawapiskat got dropped from the Ontario Power Grid. The emergency plan was activated and an emergency shelter was setup. There were 80 people staying in the DeBeers bunkhouse and, as there was no power there, they were given the option to move to the shelter, were there was power. A few stayed behind and there was an accidental fire (caused by a candle) started and confined to one unit.

The incident triggers the need for an assessment and that assessment couldn't begin to take place till this week. There will likely need to be some remediation work done before it is good to go.

AANDC, Ontario Emergency Management and Attawapiskat First Nations worked together to evacuate 65 people from the community on Saturday and there is no word yet on when they might return. Why didn't they just leave the 65 people in the emergency shelter? Capacity. The same thing would happen here - in an extended evacuation, shelters can't run at full capacity, because you need to be able to respond to the next emergency - people would be moved further out.

From an emergency management perspective it was "by the book". Which isn't surprising to me because the first people on the ground during the last crisis were the people that wrote the book.

Touch on the other topic...

The sewage failure took place in March of 2005 and again in 2009. The problem is a lack of housing due in part to the sewage contamination, but also due to a systemic failure and (according to Mike Holmes) they just didn't "build it right" the first time. As I understand it the condemned homes have a toxic mold that can't be remediated.

http://aptn.ca/news/2011/12/13/de-beers ... ng-crisis/

[the truth]

chief spence has done nothing for her people except fill her own pockets,and then they go and relect here????????
honestly what were they thinking or drinking

[Veovis]

chief spence has done nothing for her people except fill her own pockets,and then they go and relect here????????
honestly what were they thinking or drinking

Wasn't it with something like 250 votes of the total population?

When you have control of 30 million a year and your own police force most know when to stay home when told, and the others know when to tell them to stay home or who to vote for to keep their pay comfy.

With the gaps in the audit that happened and the replies of "don't know who we paid that 200K to" you have to expect there is bad things going on.

For the people being hung out to dry by their chief I feel bad, and this is just another bad thing to happen to people that are supposed to be cared for by their local government.

[Drip_Torch]

Half the residents were able to return home on Monday and the other half should be home by the end of the week, if not already. The restoration company finished the work yesterday.

FWIW - looks like everyone will be home for Christmas.