Housing and Infrastructure Crisis
On October 28, 2011 the Attawapiskat First Nations leadership declared a state of emergency in response to dropping temperatures, and the resulting health and safety concerns due to inadequate housing. Many residents were still living in tents, trailers and temporary shelters, and many residences and public buildings lacked running water and electricity. In one case, children, the elderly, and the ill were sleeping in rooms just a few feet away from a 2009 raw sewage spill that had not been adequately cleaned.
Attawapiskat residents were evacuated during flood conditions in May 2009. The sole elementary school building, a state of the art construction in 1976, was closed in 2000 because of toxic fumes from a 1978 diesel spill that seeped into the ground underneath the school.
Along with 300 houses, there are 5 tents and 17 sheds used for housing. Trailers that house 90 people cost $100,000 a year to maintain.
Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan claimed that officials in his department were unaware of Attawapiskat's housing problems until Oct. 28, 2011, despite having visited the community many times that year.
In November, 2011, a spokesperson for the Department of Aboriginal Affairs stated that the reserve had received a commitment of $500,000 to renovate five vacant housing units, and that it had already received "a significant boost from Canada's Economic Action Plan and funding dedicated to a new subdivision, of which 44 houses have been completed". The Prime Minister stated that the Attawapiskat First Nation had received $90 million in transfer payments since the federal Conservative Party was elected in 2006. On December 30, 2012, the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development stated that $131 million will have been spent on Attawapiskat from 2006 to the end of fiscal year 2012-13, which includes 60 houses that have been renovated or newly constructed; a new school is also under construction.
It should be noted that the $90 million in transfer payments referred to by the Prime Minister is an aggregate figure, encompassing more than just housing. This amount includes all federal funding for Attawapiskat over 5 years, which includes education, health care, social services, housing and many other necessities. All of these programs require infrastructure and human resources that are also included in the total. It is estimated that $84 million is needed for housing alone in Attawapiskat.
The crisis is the subject of a 2012 documentary by First Nations filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin, The People of the Kattawapiskak River. Obomsawin was present in the community in 2011, working on another film for the National Film Board of Canada, when the housing issue came to national attention. The Attawapiskat band received a total estimated revenue of $34 million, from the federal ($17.6 million), provincial ($4.4 million) funding and income derived from non governmental sources in 2011.
Read more about this topic: Attawapiskat First Nation
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