Ontario government wants Ottawa to do more to deal with First Nation suicides and substance abuse
Ottawa not doing enough to deal with aboriginal poverty, substance abuse: Ontario minister David Zimmer
Ontario's aboriginal affairs minister is urging the federal government to do more to address staggering poverty and despair on native reserves.Text size:IncreaseDecreaseResetShare via EmailPrintReport an ErrorSave to Mystar
FRED CHARTRAND / THE CANADIAN PRESS FILE PHOTO
Ontario Aboriginal Affairs Minister David Zimmer said Thursday that federal Aboriginal Affairs Minister Bernard Valcourt, above, didn't show up for a two-day meeting of provincial and territorial aboriginal affairs ministers and native leaders in Winnipeg recently.
By: Richard J. Brennan Provincial Politics, Published on Thu Apr 18 2013
Ottawa is not doing nearly enough to deal with the staggering poverty and substance abuse on native reserves, Ontario Aboriginal Affairs Minister David Zimmer says.
His comment follows a declaration of emergency in Neskantaga First Nation in the wake of two recent suicides, making a total of seven deaths and 20 suicide attempts in the past year in the community of only 300.
Zimmer said Thursday the federal Aboriginal Affairs Minister Bernard Valcourt didn't even bother to show up for a two-day meeting of provincial and territorial aboriginal affairs ministers and native leaders in Winnipeg recently.
"It should just be in our hearts and our souls to tackle this and we need the federal government to work with us," Zimmer said as the province prepared its emergency response plan.
"We have to tackle this issue of suicides on the reserves and indeed the off-reserves," Zimmer told reporters at Queen's Park. "We've got to push with the federal government to do their bit."
While native reserves are the responsibility of the federal government, Emergency Management Ontario is on standby to work with Ottawa and the First Nations community to co-ordinate support during this situation.
Valcourt spokeswoman Andrea Richer said her boss continues to work with First Nation communities and their leaders, as well as with the provinces, to improve living conditions on reserve and to create opportunities for First Nations.
"Since assuming his role (earlier this year), the Minister has focused on traveling to almost every region of the country, including to remote First Nation communities, to meet with First Nation community members, youth and leaders to hear first hand from them how we can work together to achieve our shared objective of healthier, more self-sufficient and prosperous communities," Richer said in a email statement.
Neskantaga Chief Peter Moonias said that just as the community was burying the first victim - a man in his 30s - they learned of the death of a 19-year-old from Neskantaga living in Thunder Bay. He added that police have yet to declare the second death a suicide, but suspects they soon will.
The problems come just a few months after another young man took his life there in December, a tragedy that prompted the community to close ranks and put its youth on suicide watch to prevent additional deaths.
Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq offered her condolences Thursday, telling the House of Commons that Health Canada has sent additional nurses as well as counselling staff to the community.
"Our government takes the situation seriously, which is why we provided funding for drug and alcohol abuse programs in the community," Aglukkaq said.
The Ojibwa chief estimates more than half the community's adults are addicted to OxyContin or other painkillers. Recently, he has seen evidence of trafficking in Tylenol 2 selling for $5 a pill.
The limited health-care resources made available to Neskantaga to deal with addictions have been insufficient and have not worked well, Moonias added.
"Let's help these young people," he said. "I don't want this to continue another day, another month."
Another First Nations leader in the region told CBC that meeting the demands of the burgeoning mining industry is only adding to Neskantaga's misery.
"It's just a lot of pressure, I think, from the outside," Nishnawbe Aski Nation Deputy Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler said, "as well as trying to deal with what's happening right in their community."
Zimmer said it is in everyone's best interests, including the mining interest, the federal and provincial governments not only to tackle the emergency but also tackles long-terms causes of utter despair in this community near James Bay.
"It is in everybody's interest, it's in the governments' interest, it's in the aboriginal community's interested and also in the interest of the mining companies to have the best possible workplace conditions and community conditions up there," he said.
Jobs are one thing, Zimmer said, but without quality health care and education one won't lead to the other.
"The question is to get the mix right, jobs, health, education," Zimmer said.
Neskantaga First Nation is in NDP MPP Sarah Campbell's Kenora-Rainy River riding.
"There is a lot that's within the provincial government's control . . . we need to help them with the treatment programs in the communities. We need to help provide some funding for education and to help put adequate schools in. There is a whole bunch of things that need to happen," Campbell said.
"It's a crisis and we need to respond to it in the same way we would respond to a crisis in other areas of the province . . . but we also need to address the larger social issues in (native) communities right across this province," she said.