Fires on Manitoba’s First Nations Reserves Underscore a Serious Housing Crisis

An ongoing inquest into the deaths of three children and one adult in house fires on northern reserves in 2011 exposed disturbing details about the housing crisis many Manitoba First Nations are faced with to this day.

Chief David McDougall told the inquest that not only is St. Theresa Point First Nation unable to afford fire inspections for the homes on the reserve, but even if they could, "to inspect those units would mean removing everyone from their homes. We don't have the money to accommodate them."

In St. Theresa Point First Nation, in January 2011, two-month-old Errabella Harper died in a house fire that started in a chimney. In God's Lake First Nation two months later, Demus James and his grandchildren, three-year-old Kayleigh Okemow and two-year-old Throne Kirkness, died after a space heater set fire to their home.

As if the tragic situation weren't dire enough, the inquest was told that neither First Nation was equipped to properly fight the fires in the first place. At the time of the fires in 2011, St. Theresa Point's fire truck was broken, and God's Lake didn't even have a fire truck.

Instead, the Canadian Press reported that "neighbours fought the flames in vain with buckets of water they carried from the community's fire trucks and low-pressure hoses similar to garden hoses." And apparently these two situations are actually quite common, with almost one third of Manitoba First Nations without fire trucks and 39 percent without a fire-hall. It was also reported that "although fires on reserves make up less than five percent of all fires in Manitoba, they account for up to half the fatalities."

Perhaps most disturbing of all is that for those following the housing crisis plaguing many First Nations, these "revelations" are old news.

The housing crisis on Manitoba First Nations has been making headlines for years. In 2011, 300 families in Sandy Bay First Nation, a community of 3,200, were on a waiting list for housing. That same year, the Winnipeg Free Press ran a special investigation titled "No Running Water" that exposed many southern Manitobans to the obstacles many northern First Nations face daily—which included lack of potable water, black mould infestations, poor sanitation and overcrowded housing, among others—for the first time. And yet, since then, not much has changed for many communities.

"This is a completely typical situation," Niigaanwewidam Sinclair, a professor of Native Studies at the University of Manitoba, told VICE over an evening coffee in downtown Winnipeg. "Why is it that First Nations don't have a fire truck for a community of 4,000 people? Why were people sitting with a garden hose from their house trying to put out this fire?

"We currently exist in a country where there are so many emergency situations on First Nations," Sinclair continued. "When you have situations like St. Theresa Point, Lake St. Martin, Chemawawin Cree at Easterville, Sayise Dene, my own community of Peguis is flooded every year, Sagkeeng's flooded every year. And I'm just talking Manitoba! It is abhorrent."

Funding for First Nations comes by way of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada, a department of the federal government. AANDC provides annual funding to the Aboriginal Firefighters' Association of Canada to the tune of $215,000 annually.

"First Nation communities are responsible for developing fire management plans and determining their priorities for fire protection services such as purchasing equipment," a representative for AANDC's Manitoba Region wrote VICE in a statement. "We know that education and awareness play an integral role in fire safety. We will continue to work with First Nation communities and organizations like the Aboriginal Firefighters Association of Canada to support fire protection on reserve."

"I'd say the responsibility for this lands pretty squarely on the federal government," Peter Kulchyski, head of the department of Native Studies, told VICE. "They've underfunded reserves for year and years and year, and housing is the place where push has come to shove."

"If there's one universal problem on First Nations, it's housing," Sinclair agreed. "First Nations put aside money for education, money for health, then they're left with money to build, say, seven homes. But it turns out they need 104."

"Reserves have limited budgets, and long waiting lists for housing," Kulchyski explained. "They make the budget stretch as far as they can, and sometimes that means buying trailers, or 'mobile modular units.'"

It should be noted that trailers, built in the south and transported thousands of kilometers on Manitoba highways and secondary roads. While these trailers may be "the most cost effective housing units" available to First Nations, often they not built or properly insulated to withstand northern winters, and can be damaged during transportation.

"Every community make choices," Sinclair said. "Choices come from opportunity. It's the opportunity, really, that's lacking. A lot of First Nations know what they want, but don't have the resources to fill that need. As a result, they're making tough choices, like not doing fire inspections on their homes."

David Schafter, Manitoba's fire chief, was the inquest's final witness Thursday. According to CTV, he told the inquest that "regular, informal inspections" could be done on northern reserves, which would highlight fire hazards and other "easy fixes," as opposed to "official" inspections that he feared would lead to mass evictions.

With the results of the inquest expected by the end of the week, will its final report be just another heartbreaking account of hardships faced by Manitoba First Nations? Or will it lead to positive change?

"This thing is just so sick, and so indicative of a chronically broken system," Sinclair told VICE. "This relationship cannot be fixed overnight. But committing to a truly equitable relationship with First Nations means a radical overhaul to the country. The very fabric of the country is broken."

"Canada is a house, it's not an apartment building," Sinclair concluded. "And the thing about a house, if you have one room that's infested with whatever, broken down, has mould, it's the entire house that's condemned, not just that room. And that's the situation we find ourselves in now. Canada is a condemnable state."

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