Feds Pitch in Funds to Help Attawapiskat Crisis

The Department of Aboriginal Affairs finds $2.5 million to help build much-needed homes in a remote First Nations community.

The federal government has stepped in with more aid money to help ease the state of emergency at the Attawapiskat First Nation in northern Ontario. The Conservative government will pay $2.5 million to the First Nation to help them build homes and ensure a clean water supply after the Red Cross said it would intervene in the crisis, in which, according to APTN (and NDP MP Charlie Angus), "19 families live in shacks with no running water; 122 families live in condemned housing; 96 people live in one industrial-sized trailer and 268 new houses are needed immediately." The Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario had also written an open letter to Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty and Prime Minister Stephen Harper to stop bickering over who has jurisdiction over the community and to release funds as they are "profoundly concerned about the dangers of fire, freezing, infectious diseases, skin conditions and mental health challenges that arise when people are forced to live in inhumane conditions.” Attawapiskat officials have long been asking the feds for more money to help with their housing crisis, but had only received $500,000 this year to help build homes for five families currently living in tents. The Department of Aboriginal Affairs says it has paid $9 million to Attawapiskat since 2004, but the community says that hasn't been anywhere near enough money to cover their needs.