It's a sensitive topic - as we found out around provincial election time - but it's a topic that needs attention (and believe what you will) not just in the form of federal funding.
Similar occurrences are happening on other reserves across the country but one location in particular is garnering a lot of attention as of late. The northern Aboriginal community of Attawapiskat is in big trouble. Winter is setting in and there are people living in tents with only buckets for toilets. The fly-in reserve is facing a severe housing shortage. What houses there are, are overcrowded, mouldy and in extreme disrepair. Alcohol and drug abuse is rampant and children are living in squalor. Yet the population continues to rise.
On the housing front alone, the government estimates up to 35,000 new homes are needed across the country to meet demands and the Assembly of First Nations says that number is actually closer to 85,000. Nearly half of all homes on reserves need repairs and the main reason cited is a lack of maintenance by tenants who have no ownership stake.
Some would say the federal government isn't doing enough to help these people. They need more funding to get on their feet we would be made to believe. But did you know, that since 2006 the federal government has spent $1.4 billion on reserve housing and that by 2013 it will have forked out $2.5 billion on water and sewage systems? And that's just the tip of the iceberg.
First Nations like Attawapiskat have basically become 'wards of the state' - almost entirely dependant on taxpayer support. Last year this remote village had a working capital deficit of $4 million and a net debt of $11.3 million. Aside from keeping people alive, how is federal funding helping in this particular circumstance? I'm aware there were treaties that were signed many years ago and that things have been done a certain way since that time, but times and circumstances change. Like the rest of society - across the globe - we have to change too. The current formula is not working and we need only look at isolated reserves across Canada to see that.
"For the sake of this generation of children, having to grow up in these squalid conditions, we have to face the fact that isolated reserves have been a failed experiment and that it's time to move on," says Laurie Gough, a teacher and author who spent three months on a struggling reserve. And she's right.
We need to look past the funding and find a way to help these people to help themselves. And that's the bottom line.
