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AFN Press Release - April 27

National Chief Denounces Government Inaction in Addressing The TB Outbreak in Garden Hill First Nations

            OTTAWA, April 27 /CNW Telbec/ - Assembly of First Nations National Chief Phil Fontaine commented today following a meeting with Garden Hill First Nation Chief David Harper regarding the deplorable lack of assistance provided to the Garden Hill First Nation which currently is facing more than a dozen cases of active tuberculosis (TB) in their community of 3,500. National Chief Fontaine stressed the need to raise national attention to the alarming situation in Garden Hill.

            "This community requires urgent assistance to protect further spread of this TB outbreak, a highly communicable disease that most Canadians would associate more closely with the Third World," stated National Chief Fontaine, "A strong commitment from federal and provincial governments is also immediately required to prevent recurrent outbreaks in Garden Hill and other First Nations communities in the longer term."

            In a 1999 report, Health Canada's First Nations and Inuit Health Branch recognized that: "TB is far more likely to occur in communities with higher levels of crowding (and) other risk factors for TB, such as poverty, substance abuse, remoteness, and various underlying medical conditions."

            77% of the homes in Garden Hill were built before 1979, and only 4% of those homes have access to running water. Compounding the problem, overcrowding is three times greater than the Canadian average.

            "When we first told of the presence of active TB in our community, doctors from Toronto and Vancouver were flown in," recalls Chief Harper. "They told us to cough with our hands over our mouths and then wash our hands. We had to tell them that in this community there is no such thing as turning on a tap and having easy access to safe water. Things other Canadians take for granted is not the reality in our community."

            Recurrent outbreaks in isolated communities such as in Garden Hill First Nation require new investments in housing and infrastructure, health human resources and public health. The Government of Canada committed in the 2005 budget and in the First Ministers Meeting in Kelowna to improve housing conditions.

            "The $600 million in housing and the $1.3 billion in health announced at the First Ministers Meeting must be honored by the new government," emphasized National Chief Fontaine, "Otherwise, situations such Garden Hill and Kashechewan First Nation will continue to bring shame to Canada. This is simply unacceptable in a country that is boasting of a surplus. If we do not invest now then Canada will continue to pay for the social and economic costs of this broken system. We hope that in the upcoming federal budget the new Government will recognize the need to work with us to build a better quality of life for First Nations."

            The Assembly of First Nations is the national organization representing First Nations citizens in Canada.

                   Backgrounder on Tuberculosis in First Nation Communities
                   --------------------------------------------------------

            - In 2001, the incidence of tuberculosis (TB) disease in First Nations communities was, on average, ten times higher than that of the Canadian population as a whole (6 per 100,000).

            - Between 1975 and 2002, there was a significant decline in the number of cases and incidence rate of TB among First Nations. Most of the positive impact was achieved by 1992.

            - Over the last ten years, there has been limited improvement in further reducing the incidence of TB among First Nations, especially in western provinces.

            - Health Canada's First Nations and Inuit Health Branch (FNIHB) implemented the Tuberculosis Elimination Strategy in 1992, with the goal of reducing incidence of TB disease in the First Nations on-reserve population to 1 per 100,000 by the year 2010. FNIHB underwent a major review of the Strategy in 2005-06. No results have yet been shared with AFN.

            - It is not uncommon for communities in western provinces to have 30-50% of their population infected with the bacteria that causes TB. In 2005, Manitoba overall had a total of 42 cases (down from 67 the year before) of TB disease reported on reserve.

            - People who are infected with these bacteria may or may not develop TB disease during their lifetime. Only a small minority (10%) of people with these latent infections develop disease.

            - Repetitive TB outbreaks in endemic communities contribute substantially to the national TB notification rate. In 1999, 40% of First Nations on-reserve cases of active TB disease occurred in only 5 First Nations communities.

            - The Canadian Lung Association states that "For Aboriginal peoples, the overall proportion contributed to the total Canadian TB case load continues to be substantial (...) TB continues to infect Canadians because there exists a reservoir for the disease among population groups considered "high risk". Individuals at high risk for tuberculosis fit into one of two groups: first are those whose immune system is compromised, such as patients with HIV; and second are those located in socio-depressed areas, which may include inner-city slums, reservations, or underdeveloped countries". (http//www.lung.ca/tb/tbtoday/resurgence/)

            - Housing is an important determinant of health. Inadequate housing can play role in the spread of tuberculosis and other diseases, according to many sources:

            - The 1999 Tuberculosis in First Nations Communities report from FNIHB states that: "TB is far more likely to occur in communities with higher levels of crowding. It is recognized that overcrowded communities may also be more likely to suffer from other risk factors for TB, such as poverty, substance abuse, remoteness, and various underlying medical conditions." In fact, housing density was seen as a significant predictor of TB incidence.
            - The Standing Committee on Public Accounts, Chapter 6, April 2003, page 3: "Poor housing conditions negatively affect the health, education, and overall social conditions of individuals and communities on reserves".
            - The Canadian Policy Research Networks Inc, December 2004, page 2 , "There is a growing body of evidence that housing circumstances effect the physical and well being of families and individuals. This relationship has important practical consequences for policy, as improving housing circumstances should improve health". "Housing Advocates must argue, with supporting evidence, that housing expenditures can reduce health care costs"
            - The Greenlining Institute. Housing: the foundation for individual and community health. San Francisco: The Greenlining Institute; 2002, page 23. "They note that poor physical housing conditions are associated with respiratory infections, asthma, tuberculosis, and injuries in children."

            - The Government of Canada committed, both in the 2005 budget amendments and in the commitments from the First Ministers Meeting in Kelowna, to improving housing for First Nations. The overcrowding at Garden Hill First Nation and in other First Nation communities, and the consequent effects on health, require immediate action to let those funds flow.

                                   Garden Hill First Nation
                                   ------------------------

            - Manitoba Health is currently reporting a new TB outbreak in 20 First Nations living in Manitoba. This includes both confirmed cases and suspected cases of TB. The majority are Garden Hill First Nation residents.

            - Garden Hill First Nation's total population living in the community is over 3,500 members. Garden Hill First Nation has only 504 dwellings. The town of Altona, Manitoba, by comparison, has a population of 3286 (1996 census), with 1455 occupied dwellings. No new housing units have been built since 1998 and 77% were built before 1979. Garden Hill's overcrowding ratio is 6.35 persons per room; this is nearly three times the Canadian average of 2.6 persons per room. Only 20 dwellings or 4% of the community has access to running water. Of the 504 units, 16% require a major repair which is twice that required by Canadians overall (8%). In fact, according to Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, only 59% of existing units can be termed as adequate housing.

            - Garden Hill First Nation has no year-round road access to a service centre and, as a result, experiences a higher cost of transportation. Distance, measured directly, to the nearest service centre is between 400 Km and 480 Km. Patients who need to be medically evacuated from the community must travel by boat from the health centre to the airport.

            - Manitoba Health and FNIHB (Manitoba Region) are conducting contact tracing activities in the community. However, since the first TB case was not diagnosed for more than eight months, the community's leadership has requested community-wide screening; however, they are not being granted this request based on the lack of resources made available to assist them.

            - While a full complement of nine (9) nurses is required in the community on an ongoing basis, this level of capacity has never been reached and the community relies on less than half the number of nurses. Due to the outbreak only, FNIHB has increased the number of nurses available in the community on a temporary basis. On April 18, a full time TB nurse for the community started. As well, 2 TB regional nurses and an X-ray technician have travelled into Garden Hill.

BRIEFING - Garden Hill First Nation Tuberculosis Outbreak - April 25, 2006

            Manitoba Health is currently reporting a cluster of tuberculosis (TB) cases in northern Island Lake communities. A total of 20 active cases have been detected to date. 14 of these cases are among residents of Garden Hill First Nation whose total population is over 3533.

            These numbers are not insignificant, and represent half of the total number of TB cases seen last year in Manitoba.

            Garden Hill First Nation requires immediate assistance to prevent further spread of the disease, as well as long-term investments to eliminate the threat of recurrent outbreaks.

Immediate Assistance Required

            The source case remained undiagnosed for over eight months. Health Canada's First Nations and Inuit Health Branch (FNIHB) and Manitoba Health are conducting contact tracing, but the community is requesting community-wide screening. This request has been denied by FNIHB due to the need for additional resources to be made available to the community. As well, community leadership is having difficulty accessing information on the number of active cases and those undergoing treatment in a timely fashion.

            Chief David Harper temporarily closed the elementary school and day care due to workers at these facilities having been diagnosed with the disease. The community leadership is seeking reassurance that more cases will not remain undetected and expose children to unnecessary risk.

            Additional nursing staff is required to support Directly Observed Therapy. While a TB nurse has been assigned to Garden Hill in the interim (since April 24) and 2 TB regional nurses and an X-ray technician visited the community, regular nurses are overburdened with dealing with new TB cases and the overall standard of care has been seriously compromised.

            The Northern Medical Unit of the University of Manitoba will be conducting a self-assessment of what led the TB source case to remain undetected for so long. This assessment should be conducted by an independent agency, selected by the Garden Hill First Nation leadership, since the Northern Medical Unit is responsible for service delivery in the community. There is a clearly a lack of objectivity.

Sustainable Solution

            In 2001, the incidence of tuberculosis (TB) disease in First Nations communities was, on average, ten times higher than that of the Canadian population as a whole (6 per 100,000). Between 1975 and 2002, there was a significant decline in the number of cases and incidence rate of TB among First Nations. Most of the positive impact was achieved by 1992. This is despite FNIHB's Tuberculosis Elimination Strategy, implemented in 1992, with the goal of reducing incidence of TB disease in the First Nations on-reserve population to 1 per 100,000 by the year 2010.

            Over the last ten years, there has been limited improvement in further reducing the incidence of TB among First Nations, especially in western provinces.

            The 1999 Tuberculosis in First Nations Communities report from FNIHB states that: "TB is far more likely to occur in communities with higher levels of crowding. It is recognized that overcrowded communities may also be more likely to suffer from other risk factors for TB, such as poverty, substance abuse, remoteness, and various underlying medical conditions." In fact, housing density was seen as a significant predictor of TB incidence.

            The TB outbreak in Garden Hill is no doubt rooted in a series of confounding factors: isolation, lack of community control over resource requirements and intervention strategies, poor housing conditions, lack of running water and lack of nursing capacity.

            - No new housing units have been built since 1998. The total number of units if 504 of which 392 (77%) were built before 1979. Garden Hill's overcrowding ratio is 6.35 persons per room; this is nearly three times the Canadian average of 2.6 persons per room.
            - Only 4% of units have access to running water. Despite this, INAC has not included Garden Hill First Nation, or any other Manitoba First Nation community, in its "high-priority" list of communities to be addressed in the newly announced First Nations Drinking Water Action Plan.
            - Of the 504 units, 16% require a major repair which is twice that required by Canadians overall (8%). In fact, according to Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, only 59% of existing units can be termed as adequate housing.
            - Garden Hill First Nation has no year-round road access to a service centre and, as a result, experiences a higher cost of transportation. Distance, measured directly, to the nearest service centre is between 400 Km and 480 Km.
            - Patients must travel by boat from the health centre to the airport when they require medical transportation. Often, the boat must turn around before reaching the airport due to the need to stabilize the patient.
            - FNIHB has defined the total complement of nurses needed in Garden Hill First Nation to be 9 nurses. This level of capacity has never been achieved and the community relies on 4 nurses or less than 50% of FNIHB's estimated capacity requirement.

            In light of the above, the elimination of TB in Garden Hill First Nation requires a commitment from the federal government to the following:

            - Investments in housing and infrastructure. INAC Region has expressed some support for new water infrastructure, but restricted it to the central part of the community. This will only reach 200 units.
            - Investments in nursing capacity, to ensure recruitment and retention of a minimum of 9 nurses, as determined by FNIHB to be required.
            - Improved sharing of data between First Nations leadership, FNIHB and Manitoba Health to ensure a coordinated and agreed-to approach to addressing public health issues and emergencies.

-30-

/For further information: Don Kelly, AFN Communications Director, (613) 241-6789 ext. 320, cell (613) 292-2787; Ian McLeod, AFN Bilingual Communications Officer, (613) 241-6789 ext. 336, cell (613) 859-4335/

Two representatives from Telesat Canada (Mike Collins and Elaine Robichaud) visited Sioux Lookout today to meet with the National Indigenous Community Satellite Network (NICSN - http://smart.knet.ca/satellite) to discuss efforts to acquire additional satellite bandwidth for the NICSN members.

The NICSN team with reps from the Keewatin Tribal Council in Northern Manitoba, the Kativik Regional Government in Northern Quebec and the Kuhkenah Network in Northern Ontario met with the folks from Telesat to identify strategies to support the application to Industry Canada's National Satellite Initiative and Infrastructure Canada to purchase additional satellite space. Carl Seibel, Industry Canada FedNor, also called into this meeting from Vancouver.

A tour of the network facilities and the available resources provided the team with information about how the existing network is maintained and sustained by the members.

Click here to see the photos from this trip

Community members from Fort Albany and Kashechewan are now living in temporary shelters in Thunder Bay and Geraldton due to spring flooding in their communities. See the news coverage below ...

NAN Press Release - April 26

NAN commends City of Thunder Bay and Red Cross for emergency preparedness

THUNDER BAY, ON, April 26 /CNW/ - Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN) Grand Chief Stan Beardy highly commends the efficiency and effectiveness of combined efforts of the City of Thunder Bay, Police, Fire and Rescue, Superior North EMS, Emergency Management Ontario, and Canadian Red Cross in preparing for approximately 300 evacuees from Fort Albany First Nation - the second NAN community evacuated in the past five days due to severe flooding.

"I commend the City of Thunder Bay's initiative and preparatory work of the Red Cross, emergency personnel, and volunteers in coordinating two working shelters well before the majority of residents from Fort Albany arrived in Thunder Bay yesterday afternoon," said NAN Grand Chief Stan Beardy who represents the 49 First Nation communities part of James Bay Treaty 9 territory, including Fort Albany. "It's great to see the community of Thunder Bay come together to assist our people and we look forward to working along side them at the two sites."

Evacuees from the First Nation community neighbouring Kashechewan First Nation on the coast of James Bay arrived in Thunder Bay late Tuesday afternoon after concern of flooding and ice movement in and around the community with an approximate total population of 700.

"I'd like to thank the city Thunder Bay and volunteers for their assistance and am hopeful the current situation is short-term and expect community members will be able to return home soon," said Fort Albany Chief Mike Metatawabin.

The evacuation is not expected to last more than a week.

The Canadian Red Cross is accepting volunteers through their Human Resources department at the local office, however will not accept clothing or food donations.

-30-

/For further information: Jenna Young, Director of Communications, Nishnawbe Aski Nation, (807) 625-4952, (807) 628-3953 (cellular)/

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from http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2006/04/25/fort-albany060425.html

Ontario flies people out of a second reserve, chief says no need
Tue, 25 Apr 2006 - CBC News

Some people from a second Cree reserve in Ontario's James Bay lowlands are being flown south to avoid possible flooding, although the band chief says there's no clear danger.

The Fort Albany First Nation faces Kashechewan – the scene of epic water problems and repeated evacuations – across the broad delta of the Albany River.

Fort Albany declared a state of emergency on Sunday amid fear that the spring ice breakup would release a deluge, but the alert was put on hold after a surveillance flight on Monday.

Chief Mike Metatawabin told CBC News he did not request an evacuation but people living in one of three settlements on the reserve, Sinclair Island, called a provincial agency and said they wanted to leave.

He said he expected about 130 to make the trip to Thunder Bay.

The other Fort Albany settlements are on the mainland and Anderson Island. The combined population is about 900.

An Emergency Management Ontario official said the agency was acting on a request from a band representative and was set to provide flights for as many as 330 people.

Meanwhile, people from Kashechewan continued to be airlifted out to join others in Cochrane and elsewhere.

See CBC News story after the AFN press release ...

AFN PRESS RELEASE

Assembly of First Nations National Chief Statement on Minister of Indian Affairs - 

Announcement on the Residential Schools Final Agreement

OTTAWA, April 25 /CNW Telbec/ - Today in the House of Commons, federal Minister of
Indian Affairs and Northern Development Jim Prentice stated: "It's with pleasure
that I rise to inform the House that the Government's representative, the Honourable
Frank Iacobucci, together with the Assembly of First Nations legal representatives
of the former students of the Indian Residential Schools and representatives of
three of the churches running the schools have today reached substantive agreement
on a final Residential School settlement agreement. ... I've been informed that the
lead representatives for the Catholic Church groups involved with, has given their
assurance as well that all of those organizations will be confirming their support
for the settlement agreement. The Government will now immediately consider the
settlement agreement and the interim payments and the timing of those payments, and
I will keep the House informed, Mr. Speaker."The Assembly of First Nations National
Chief Phil Fontaine stated in response:

"When I went public with my own experience in 1990, I knew that any efforts to
resolve the legacy of the residential schools would have to involve not only
compensation, but healing and reconciliation as well. In 2004, the AFN issued a
major report that presented a better approach than what had been available up until
that time. It set-out an approach that provided for healing and reconciliation
between First Nations and Canada as well as fair and just compensation for all
residential schools survivors. Our approach was and is comprehensive. It is good for
First Nations because it provides for healing and redress and it is good for Canada
because it is faster and more cost-effective than lengthy court battles and class
actions. I stated earlier this week that the AFN endorsed the Final Agreement which
can now go to federal Cabinet because it is based on our approach. The AFN and
survivors have been leading this process and we endorsed the Final Agreement earlier
this week because it is based entirely on our approach. We welcome today's
announcement by Minister Prentice and his statement that the government will give
immediate consideration to the Final Agreement. He has our full support as he
secures approval from the federal Cabinet. This is a tremendous day for First
Nations, for survivors of residential schools and for Canada."

Phil Fontaine
National Chief
Assembly of First Nations
        
A Chronology of events leading to the Residential Schools Final Agreement is
attached. Media are invited also to review the AFN statement endorsing the
Residential Schools Final Agreement issued through Canada Newswire on April 23rd.
        
The Assembly of First Nations is the national organization representing First
Nations citizens in Canada.
        
Residential Schools - A Chronology
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
        
1890s - early 1900s
-------------------
Residential and Industrial Schools were established in locations across Canada,
predominantly in Western Canada for the purpose of "killing the Indian in the
child." Over 150,000 children attended these residential schools up to 1973.
        
1990
----
Phil Fontaine, Grand Chief of the Manitoba Chiefs goes public as the first Indian
leader to tell the story of his own abuse in residential school and calls for
recognition of the abuse, compensation and an apology for the inherent racism in the
policy.
        
1991
----
Several individual law suits are launched.
        
Some residential school survivor groups are formed
        
1996
----
The Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples recommends that a public inquiry be held
to investigate and document the abuses in Indian Residential Schools
        
1997
----
July - Phil Fontaine elected as National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations.
        
AFN initiates negotiations with federal government officials for an out-of-court
settlement for the residential school abuses.
        
1998
----
Consultative dialogues take place between AFN, survivors, federal government and
church officials to set out the Guiding Principles for resolution of residential
school claims.
        
January - AFN and National Chief Phil Fontaine negotiate the Statement of
Reconciliation with a Healing Fund of $350 million for survivors of residential
schools. Government admits wrongdoing for the first time and apologizes to
residential school survivors in the Statement of Reconciliation.
        
May - The Aboriginal Healing Foundation is established.
        
A class action is commenced for a single Indian Residential School in Ontario.
        
2000
----
Further class actions launched by law firms.
        
2001
----
Department of Indian Residential Schools Resolution Canada is formed to deal with
the out of court settlement of residential school abuse claims.
        
2003
----
November - Canada launches an Alternative Dispute Resolution process.
        
2004
----
March - AFN and the University of Calgary Law School organize a national conference
to examine the ADR process and delegates find it to be seriously flawed.

November - AFN, through an expert committee, publishes the Report on Canada's
Dispute Resolution Plan to Compensate for Abuses in Indian Residential Schools,
which sets out the requirements for a holistic, just and fair settlement for all
residential school survivors, the key elements of which are:
- a lump sum payment for all survivors of $10,000 and $3,000 per year for every year
attended;
- and early payment for the elderly;
- a truth commission;
- a healing fund;
- a commemoration fund;
- a more comprehensive and fair and just process for the settlement individual abuse
claims.
        
2005
----
January - AFN begins discussions with officials to consider the elements of the AFN
Report.

May 30 - National Chief Phil Fontaine signs the Political Agreement with Canada. The
Agreement appoints the Hon. Frank Iacobucci to be the government representative in
final settlement negotiations. The Agreement states that the AFN will pay a "key and
central role" and that the AFN Report will form the basis of the Settlement.
        
July - Negotiations with all parties commence in various locations in Canada.
        
November 30 - All parties to the negotiations sign the Agreement in Principle,
incorporating all of the key AFN Report recommendations.
        
2006
----
All parties commence negotiations leading towards a final settlement agreement.
        
April 24 - All parties sign a final agreement, which awaits final Cabinet approval.

-30-

/For further information: Media Contacts: Don Kelly, AFN, Communications Director,
(613) 241-6789 ext. 320 or cell (613) 292-2787; Ian McLeod, AFN Bilingual
Communications Officer, (613) 241-6789 ext. 336 or cell (613) 859-4335; For general
(non-media) inquiries on residential schools please contact: Shannon Swan, AFN
Project Assistant, Residential Schools Unit, (613) 241-6789 ext. 332 or toll free
1-866-869-6789/

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From http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2006/04/25/residential060425.html

Residential school deal almost final - Tue, 25 Apr 2006 - CBC News

A final deal to compensate thousands of people who attended native residential schools has passed another hurdle and the federal cabinet could approve it within days.

Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice announced all parties have approved compensation for victims of residential schools. 

All parties in the negotiations have approved the agreement, Jim Prentice, minister of Indian affairs and northern development, announced Tuesday in the House of Commons.

The statement caused members of cabinet to stand up and applaud.

Although negotiators had indicated that the Conservatives would not give elders early payments, that now appears to have changed.

"The government will now immediately consider the settlement agreement, and the interim payments and the timing of those payments," said Prentice.

There are about 78,000 residential school survivors in Canada and about 8,000 are seniors.

'Painful part of our history'

All those over age 65 and living in poverty will be able to apply immediately for $8,000 in compensation even before the agreement is finalized in the courts.

Rosemarie Kuptana, who went to residential school for 10 years in Inuvik, says she has met a number of them in the Northwest Territories.

"It's time that the First Peoples in this country dealt with a very painful part of our history," she said.

Liberal Indian Affairs critic Anita Neville has seen a copy of the agreement that was approved by the parties involved in the negotiations.

She says it hasn't changed much under the Conservatives. It still includes a promise to spend $1.9 billion to compensate survivors.

"I am pleased to see that the government has finally agreed to endorse the agreement in principle signed in November 2005 by the previous Liberal government, the Assembly of First Nations and church leaders," said Neville in a news release.

Phil Fontaine, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, says approval by all parties is significant, since it took many years of complicated negotiations to get to this point.

"It's very significant to have all of the diverse interests that have been involved in the very complicated process of negotiations accept the final agreement," said Fontaine.

Two online news stories describe the current evacuation that is underway in Kashechewan First Nation.

from http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2006/04/23/kashechewan060423.html

Flooding forces 750 from Kashechewan reserve - Sun, 23 Apr 2006 - CBC News

Spring flooding has forced hundreds of people to leave the northern Ontario reserve of Kashechewan. 

A helicopter takes Kashechewan residents from their water-logged Ontario reserve to nearby Fort Albany, before they go south by plane.

About 750 people, of a total population of 1,750, had been flown south from the James Bay community to Geraldton and Cochrane late Sunday afternoon, Chief Leo Friday told CBC News Online.

Kashechewan declared a state of emergency Saturday when water levels rose quickly and asked for immediate help from the province.

Starting with old people and infants on the first day, about 350 people were flown to Cochrane by Sunday morning and 400 were being flown to Geraldton on Sunday.

Julian Fantino, Ontario's commissioner of emergency management, said as many as 900 could be flown out.

He said there's both good and bad news in the fight against the flooded Albany River.

Kashechewan's airstrip has been too wet to use – the evacuees are being flown by helicopter to nearby Fort Albany, and then south by plane – but workers started at 6 a.m. Sunday to compact the surface.

"It may be solid enough to be used" on Monday, and a plane will attempt a landing in the morning," the chief said.

But the dike that protects the community is leaking and basements are already flooded.

"At this point it's starting to leak slowly," Friday said. "Our generators may be flooded tomorrow."

On Sunday afternoon, Kashechewan asked for pumps to be brought from Moosonee. "If we can have at least a couple of pumps, we can save the whole community from being damaged," he said.

There is also a drinking water problem. Ice has taken the water-treatment plant out of service and the remaining residents are drinking water that was delivered, but Friday is not sure how long it will last.

The community has asked the federal Department of Indian Affairs to bring in more water.

Drinking-water quality not problem, Fantino says

Fantino said the flooding is unrelated to problems that forced the evacuation of more than 1,100 Kashechewan residents in the fall of 2005.

"This problem has nothing to do with the quality of the community's water," he said.
 
The water level receded by about half a metre early Sunday, but is still 3½ to 4½ metres higher than normal, the province said in a release.

Residents 'cranky'

Friday said people are 'cranky' with the federal government, which is responsible for the infrastructure, and has rejected local proposals as too expensive, he said.

"They're really pissed off at the (federal) government for not making the infrastructure work."

For example, the community wanted above-ground steel storage tanks for the water plant, but got below-ground concrete ones, which get contaminated by ground water.

The flooding is Kashechewan's third water-related problem in a year.

About 200 people were flown off the reserve last spring when the Albany River broke through the dike and flooded some homes.

Then in the fall, water-quality issues sparked a mass evacuation.

+++++++++++++

from http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/24042006/2/national-ontario-government-evacuating-hundreds-kashechewan-due-flooding.html

Ontario government evacuating hundreds from Kashechewan due to flooding - Mon Apr 24, 2006

KASHECHEWAN, Ont. (CP) - Spring flooding has forced the evacuation of this First Nations community, the third time in 12 months that emergency teams have descended on the remote James Bay reserve.

Kashechewan declared a state of emergency on Saturday and asked Emergency Management Ontario for immediate assistance. The Ministry of Natural Resources began by airlifting 232 residents to Cochrane, Ont., on Saturday night. Up to 900 additional residents were to be flown out Sunday to Cochrane, Ont., and Greenstone, Ont., said Julian Fantino, Ontario's commissioner of emergency management.

But Sunday's evacuations were slowed by the sheer volume of residents being shuttled by helicopters across the Albany River to Fort Albany, where 37-passenger Dash 8s and nine-passenger Twin Otter aircraft ferried residents onward.

Kashechewan's own airport was unusable due to damage to the road leading to the airport, and because of water and ice on the runway.

As residents lined up to be airlifted from Kashechewan, those in Fort Albany also prepared for the possibility that they, too, could be uprooted from their homes by the rising waters.

"Last time I've seen this was when I was a kid about 10 years ago," said Fort Albany resident Ross Ashmock. "I've heard that they're packing bags right now, preparing for the worst."

Fantino stressed the flooding is unrelated to problems with contaminated water, which forced the evacuation of more than 1,100 Kashechewan residents last fall.

Still, it's yet another setback for the community of about 1,900, said David Ramsay, Ontario's minister of aboriginal affairs.

"It was last spring they had an evacuation because of flooding (and there was the evacuation because of contaminated water), so this is basically the third evacuation now in 12 months," he said.

Ramsay said he planned to speak with his federal counterpart, Jim Prentice, and Kashechewan Chief Leo Friday about doing more for the community.

"There was an agreement by the federal government to do a partial move off the community, to rebuild some of the community on higher ground, and I think we need to . . . have a broader discussion (about doing more)," Ramsay said.

"I intend to bring this up with (Prentice) when I meet him (Monday)."

The water level had receded about half a metre earlier Sunday, but was still 3.5 to 4.5 metres higher than normal.

"Last night, the power system was down," Ramsay said. "In fact, they had to light fires at the airport so the helicopters could find where to land."

"There's a lot going on but we're getting the people out, getting them to safety."

Fantino said the military is also on standby with personnel and equipment ready to be deployed if necessary.

Monte Kwinter, minister of community safety and correctional services, said in a statement that Emergency Management Ontario had been preparing for possible problems in northern Ontario communities for more than a month.

"Flooding is an annual problem, and EMO has been working with communities to ensure their emergency flood plans were in order, and we have been talking with all parties involved to ensure a co-ordinated response to the spring flooding situation in northern Ontario," he said.

Medical students from the new Northern Ontario School of Medicine (http://www.normed.ca) are finally spending time learning from the people and the communities that they are suppose to be serving after their graduation. In pairs of 2, the 56 medical students will be spending the next four weeks in host Aboriginal communities as part of their final learning module for their first year of medical school. In August, Aboriginal leaders and health leaders will be meeting virtually in Fort William First Nation and in other First Nation sites to review the work of the school and the students as it relates to the experiences of the Aboriginal communities.

from http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2006/04/23/northern-doctors060423.html

Medical students bound for immersion in aboriginal communities - Sunday, 23 Apr 2006 - CBC News

More than 50 students from the Northern Ontario School of Medicine have left on what their institution says is a unique one-month immersion program in remote First Nations communities.

The school, a joint initiative of Lakehead University in Thunder Bay and Laurentian University in Sudbury, was started in 2005 up to address the shortage of doctors in northern areas.

Pairs of first-year students departed on Sunday to visit communities that don't have full-time doctors and are served by physicians who usually fly in for a few days at a time.

"No other medical school in North America incorporates a required cultural immersion experience into a student's learning," the institution says on its website.

Dan Hunt, vice-dean of academic activities at the medical school, said doctors who plan to work in the North need to be immersed in the communities they will serve.

"Both the aboriginal community and people who study cultural competency tell us to truly understand a culture, one must actually live there for a little while," he said.

Students to join in fishing, hunting and feasting

Students will spend 10 to 12 hours a week in clinical settings such as urgent care wards, after-hours clinics and youth and school programs, the university website said.

They will also spend up to 12 hours, experiencing feasts, hunting, fishing and other community activities.

The students are also expected to keep up with their studies through teleconferencing sessions.

The school is trying to graduate more aboriginal doctors and is focused on training people to work in the North, which means there is special attention to aboriginal needs.

Traditional native healers visit the two campuses, one each at Lakehead and Laurentian, and students can attend a sweat lodge.

Could boost respect for alternate healing methods

James Lamouche, a policy analyst with the National Aboriginal Health Organization, said aboriginal and mainstream views of healing are significantly different, and neither a community visit nor a classroom can properly teach traditional medicine.

"Elders will tell us that the healing is in the land, or it's in the language or it's in the ceremonies they're passing on, and it's not necessarily in a chemical or a treatment," he said.

But the immersion program does have the potential to imbue students with respect for another way to heal, he said.

School tries to reflect cultural makeup of North

The medical school, which began with the 2005-06 academic year, decided to include the immersion month after a community consultation with aboriginal delegates.

A 2005 report from that meeting recommended that "the graduates of this medical school be culturally competent in issues related to aboriginal health" and emphasized "the need to have partnerships with the aboriginal communities."

It ran a pilot program in June 2005 with student volunteers from universities in Ontario and Manitoba.

It recently held interviews with 400 students from all over the north for 56 open spots in the next school year.

It tries to reflect the cultural makeup of northern communities and seeks students who are from the North.

Among the 400 applicants interviewed, 16 per cent are francophone and 5.6 per cent are aboriginal. Women outnumber men by 61 per cent to 39 per cent.

Recent press coverage for INAC Minister Prentice and the AFN (see below for both stories) is now indicating that the long await Residential School Settlement package is close to being completed and agreed upon by all parties.

AFN Press Release - April 23, 2006

Assembly of First Nations Approves Final Agreement on Residential Schools Resolution: Urges All Other Parties in Negotiations to Sign-off So Agreement Can Be Approved by Federal Cabinet

            OTTAWA, April 23 /CNW Telbec/ - Assembly of First Nations National Chief Phil Fontaine announced today that the AFN has approved the final agreement to resolve the legacy of Indian residential schools. The National Chief is urging all other parties in the negotiations - Churches, lawyers and other representatives of residential schools survivors - to endorse the agreement so that it can be put before the federal Cabinet for approval and implementation.

            "The final agreement is consistent with the approach the AFN has been advocating since day one," said National Chief Fontaine. "It is a holistic approach that allows for healing and reconciliation, and provides for a faster and more cost-effective approach to deal with individual claims of abuse. The approach is good for residential schools survivors and it is good for Canada. We urge all other parties in the negotiations to endorse this final agreement so it can be approved by the federal Cabinet and we can begin the long-overdue process of bringing about healing and reconciliation for all parties in this sad chapter of our shared history. This approval is a necessary step in this settlement process and we thank the survivors for their patience and understanding as we move to final resolution on residential schools."

            On November 23, 2005 an agreement in principle was struck between the AFN, federal negotiator the Honourable Frank Iacobucci, survivors, lawyers and churches involved in residential schools cases. The agreement was to set in place a comprehensive approach that would include: a lump sum payment for all survivors to compensate for loss of language and culture resulting from the schools; a more efficient and effective process to deal with serious claims of abuse; a national "truth-telling" commission to bring greater understanding and awareness of this issue; and expedited compensation payments for the elderly. Based on the agreement-in-principle, a final agreement has now been struck and awaits approval by all parties.

            The AFN is of the understanding that once Cabinet has approved the agreement, early payments to the elderly will be processed by Service Canada. On April 19, 2006, Prime Minister Stephen Harper stated at a news conference that: "Our government is prepared to move forward with (the agreement in principle) towards a final agreement as quickly as possible. Cabinet has given its approval for that as has our caucus. The difficulty is that one of the parties on the other side is at the current time blocking the signing of a final agreement.

            The AFN Regional Chief for Saskatchewan, Alphonse Bird, stated: "The party being referred to is clearly not the AFN. I would hope that none of the First Nations representatives - including the lawyers who represent survivors - would hold-up a fair and just resolution for people who have waited far too long for healing. The survivors are aging and with each day another one passes on who has not seen justice or reconciliation for their time in the schools. This agreement is far too important to be blocked for petty or insignificant reasons."
       
            The Assembly of First Nations is the national organization representing First Nations citizens in Canada.

-30-

For further information:
Contacts: Don Kelly, AFN Communications Director, (613) 241-6789 ext. 320 or cell (613) 292-2787; Ian McLeod, AFN Bilingual Communications Officer, (613) 241-6789 ext. 336 or cell (613) 859-4335/

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From http://www.cbc.ca/sask/story/residential-schools060421.html

Deal close on residential schools, Indian Affairs minister says 
Apr 21 2006 - CBC News

A final deal on a compensation package for residential school survivors is only days away, Indian and Northern Affairs Minister Jim Prentice said Friday.

It was last year when Ottawa and First Nations organizations settled on a $1.9-billion compensation package for as many as 86,000 aboriginal people who attended church-run schools.

Prentice made his comments in Whitehorse on the last day of a week-long tour of the three northern territories.

Earlier this week, lobbyists and lawyers for the survivors said they had heard a final package may not be ready until next year.

There was great concern some people wouldn't live long enough to receive the compensation.

Prentice told reporters Friday the Conservative government isn't stalling on residential school payments. He says the final document is in place and court approval is being sought.

"I expect to have the final agreement in my hands within the next several days," he says. "I anticipate from my discussions with [special mediator Frank Iacobucci] that it will take another week or so to secure the agreement of all the parties."

The common experience payments would be for all residential schools students, which would release the government and churches from all further liability relating to the Indian residential school experience, except in cases of sexual abuse and serious incidents of physical abuse.

About 13,000 people who attended aboriginal residential schools in the 20th century have sued Ottawa and church organizations, alleging physical, sexual and emotional abuse and loss of culture and language. About 3,000 of the claims are from Saskatchewan.

Earth Day events were hosted on Friday and Saturday in an effort to support the need to protect and help our environment.

Students from Eel Ground First Nation with support from the Atlantic Chiefs' First Nations SchoolNet Helpdesk (http://firstnationshelp.com) hosted a national video conference with other schools from across the country. The archive of this special event can be found at http://webcast.knet.ca/fnhelp (Page 6) under the session entitled "Earth Day".

The session began with a special prayer from a local elder providing the teaching of the four directions as a guide for each of us to live the good life. INAC Minister Prentice provided a strong message about protecting the environment. Industry Canada Broadband Program Director, Kathy Fisher, spoke about the importance of video conferencing as one way to save on the use of fossil fuels. The session ends with a special combination of poetry, photos and music that celebrates our relationship with our mother earth.

Environment North in Thunder Bay hosted a special meeting on Earth Day, see Chronicle Journal article below ...

from http://66.244.236.251/article_5817.php

Environment North on the rebound
By CHEN CHEKKI - Thunder Bay Chronicle Journal -Apr 23, 2006
 
Earth Day is a time to think about how to make positive changes to the environment, a new director with Environment North said Saturday.

Graham Saunders, one of nine people elected to the environmental advocacy group’s board of directors on Saturday — Earth Day — said people can do something to prevent climate change.

He believes it is the biggest environmental problem facing society, and said people are trapping themselves if they use more fossil fuels, which leads to more climate change.

Climate change can then alter wildlife and crops, Saunders said. Reducing the use of fossil fuels and other consumption is a way to prevent climate change.

“Climate change is so interconnected with our energy policies and decisions,” he said.

Environment North was founded in 1972.

But it fell dormant in recent years, dwindling from a membership in excess of 300 down to about 10.

An effort to rejuvenate the group is underway. More than 30 people attended Saturday’s meeting and the group hopes to draw more participants over time.

Saunders said Earth Day symbolically recognizes that “we, as Earthlings,” have a connection with the planet.

Protecting land, water and air is Environment North’s focus, said the Chronicle-Journal columnist.

Environment North will push for bylaws to stop people from beautifying their lawns with pesticides, which can get on children playing in yards and contaminate ground water.

Saunders said the group also wants regulations governing the cutting of certain trees in the Northwest that have medicinal value. The trees could be part of a new economy in the region, he said.

© Copyright by Chronicle Journal.com

The new Northern Ontario School of Medicine (http://www.normed.ca) early beginnings talked about having a virtual campus in each community across this vast region. Now the faculty and students all work out of Thunder Bay and Sudbury except for the traditional community learning experiences for those who will venture outside of these comfortable urban environments. Maybe the proposed Ontario Northeast University (ONE-U) will get it right and actually invest in staff and facilities in the remote communities.

From http://www.timminspress.com/webapp/sitepages/content.asp?contentID=27753&catname=Local+News

New university planned for the North
By Trevor Terfloth - Timmins Daily Press - Friday, April 21, 2006

Higher learning for the North received a boost Thursday, with several organizations joining forces to help make the dream a reality.

The Ontario Northeast University (ONE U) project officially kicked off, with a mission to make innovative education available to the region’s population of more than 110,000 people.

Dave McGirr, president of the Timmins Economic Development Corporation (TEDC), said this area of the province has much to gain.

“This regional project will help enhance post-secondary educational opportunities, increase training, and sustain the population throughout Northeastern Ontario,” he said. “We look forward to working together with our regional partners in order to develop this initiative. ”

The TEDC is sponsoring the steering committee that will determine the feasibility of such an endeavour. Planned Approach Inc. will conduct the study.

When completed, ONE U would serve the District of Cochrane, the James Bay Coast, and Northern portions of the Temiskaming and Sudbury districts.

The concept is a decentralized university initially, using telecommunications links to meet the needs of each community. It would utilize existing resources and establish partnerships with Northern university and college programs.

Esko Vainio, committee chairman, said it isn’t a brand-new idea, however, he admits it promises to be a challenge worth taking.

“It’s been in the works for several years, but it’s obviously come to fruition now,” he said. “We’re ready to go with a needs analysis in order to look at ways we can deliver university education to this part of Ontario.”

A recent Porcupine Health Unit profile showed only 10.2 per cent of the population in this jurisdiction aged 20 and over had a full or partial degree, compared to 26.3 per cent for the rest of the province.

The ONE U study will also evaluate the requirements of stay-at-home parents, workers and entrepreneurs who might be unable to obtain a university education otherwise.

Northern francophones already have a similar model through the Universitie de Hearst, which has campuses in Timmins and Kapuskasing.

Vainio said today’s technology allows a school to do things that couldn’t even be imagined in the past.

The committee has short-, medium- and long-term plans for ONE U, he said.

“We need to do it in various steps,” he said. “There’s a lot of possibilities.”

A public-needs assessment survey will soon be released and the committee urges all residents to respond with their needs and desires for university education.

Two Globe and Mail articles highlight the effects of "modern" forest management strategies and fuel consumption on the environment, especially the animals and the plants. The first article from yesterday's paper will have a big impact on the folks living on the Hudson Bay coast.

From http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20060422.BEARS22/TPStory/?query=polar+bear

Polar bears to face extinction by 2030, researcher says
DENNIS BUECKERT - Canadian Press - April 22, 2006

OTTAWA -- Polar bears will be extinct within 25 years as global warming shrinks the ice cover they depend on for feeding and giving birth, a renowned Australian scientist says.

The Arctic ice cap is shrinking by 8 per cent a year and polar bears are already showing signs of severe stress, according to Tim Flannery, one of Australia's best-known scientists and author of the current bestseller The Weather Makers.

In the past, polar bears typically gave birth to triplets, but now they usually have just one cub, he said. And the weaning time has risen to 18 months from 12, while the average weight has declined 15 per cent.

"Polar bears are going to go with the ice cap. They're not going to actually last that long," Mr. Flannery told a news conference yesterday.

Citing other warning signs, he said B.C.'s Fraser River has been fatally warm to salmon for five of the past 13 years, while West Coast forests are being decimated by an infestation of pine beetles able to survive milder winters.

"These are unheralded signs of change. They simply haven't been seen in the past. They persuade me and the vast majority of my colleagues that the debate on climate change is well and truly over. The science is solid and the effects are there for everyone to see."

Mr. Flannery's visit to Ottawa came the day after former prime minister Brian Mulroney told an audience that included much of the country's political elite that Canada must recognize the urgency of global warming.

The current government has been sending mixed signals on the issue, saying it will stay in the Kyoto Protocol but promising a made-in-Canada solution that remains undefined.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said Canada can't meet its targets under the climate treaty. Yet Canada will preside over negotiations this year aimed at seeking even larger emissions reductions.

"It [Canada] chairs the negotiating process, and yet it is the only signatory of the Kyoto Protocol that's cutting its climate programs," Mr. Flannery said. "It looks as if it's going to abandon its commitments without ever having really tried to meet them.

"As an Australian, I'm used to seeing better things from Canada. I think it would be an enormous tragedy if Canada cut and run from its international obligations."

He said it is feasible to cut greenhouse-gas emissions by applying the "polluter pays" principle, cutting subsidies to the petroleum industry, and introducing a revenue-neutral carbon tax.

Under such a plan, the carbon tax would be offset by tax cuts in other areas. But the concept is anathema in Alberta, whose tar-sands projects have become the country's biggest source of greenhouse-gas emissions.

"It's only the tar sands that prevent the country from making its targets under Kyoto," Mr. Flannery said.

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from http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060422.wxbugs22/BNStory/Science/home

'We might become extinct'
TERRY GLAVIN - April 22, 2006 - From Saturday's Globe and Mail

SPENCES BRIDGE, B.C. — David Walkem was just finishing his breakfast at Vicky's Café on the banks of the Thompson River and gazing out the window at a dozen bighorn sheep moving up the hillside on the opposite bank.

Here at Spences Bridge in the southern interior of British Columbia, the hills gently rise into mountains, and above everything looms Shawnikenmx, a beloved peak where Mr. Walkem's Nlakapamux people used to go in the old days to get spirit power. Back then, the 50-year-old chief of the Cook's Ferry Indian Band explains, the high country was like parkland. As a boy, his grandfather could ride his horse through the forest at full gallop.

"We used to use fire to keep it open, for berries and for mule deer," Mr. Walkem says. "Now, it's all dead and dying and bug-infested, and you can't even walk though it. It's just like a plague, all over."

Lodgepole pines are supposed to be green. But B.C.'s pine forests are turning red, and grey, and black. They're dying from a plague of mountain pine beetles that has suddenly ravaged an area roughly the size of Britain. Nothing quite like this has ever happened before.

British Columbia hasn't been this warm in 8,000 years, and the winters are no longer cold enough to keep the beetles in check. Global-warming scenarios the International Panel on Climate Change forecast for 50 years from now are already unfolding in the province's interior, says Richard Hebda, the 56-year-old curator of botany and earth history at the Royal B.C. Museum in Victoria.

Now, Dr. Hebda is starting to wonder whether the pine forests will ever grow back. "We just don't know," he says.

Lodgepole-pine forests need catastrophic events such as beetle outbreaks and fires to regenerate themselves. Normally, they grow back quickly -- in only a few decades, even from a beetle outbreak even of this magnitude. But nobody knows whether B.C.'s climate, decades from now, will be able to support pine forests. Nothing is "normal" any more.

"The question is, will there be forests at all in the southern portion of British Columbia's central interior? Will there even be any trees?" Dr. Hebda asks. "It all depends on how much CO{-2} we push into the atmosphere."

Although the beetle outbreak began only in the 1990s, the story really began about 140 years ago, with an event that gave B.C.'s pine forests their dominant, bug-vulnerable characteristics. That event involved another plague, smallpox, which decimated B.C.'s aboriginal communities, and ended an ancient regime of prescribed-burn landscape management.

The practice of controlled burning of the forest to enhance food-plant production and maintain optimum habitat conditions for mule deer, elk and other game animals has been meticulously documented by University of Victoria ethnobotanist Nancy J. Turner.

She says a "very plausible and likely explanation" for the pine-beetle catastrophe is that the aboriginal regime ended, and was replaced by a rigid orthodoxy of fire suppression -- a central feature of 20th-century industrial forest management -- and now global warming is upon us.

In 2000, B.C.'s drought-stressed, dense and tangled pine forests lost about 184,000 hectares to the beetle. In 2001, the dead zone grew by 785,000 hectares. The next year, 1.96 million hectares turned red, followed by another 4.2 million in 2003 and seven million in 2004.

The toll so far amounts to about 400 million cubic metres of timber, which is enough wood to build another Toronto, another Montreal and another New York. The pace of the infestation is slowing; last year, it spread only to an additional 1.7 million hectares, but even that roughly equals the extent of all the forest set aside for preservation in this year's hard-fought "Great Bear Rainforest" truce.

Nobody is expecting the plague to halt. About half the living pine forest is already gone, and most of the rest is expected to be infested and die within 10 years. The economic prospects of at least 30 B.C. towns and cities have been turned upside down by all this. But the aboriginal communities are facing distinct and daunting challenges.

So, when Dr. Hebda looks into the future, he sees a lot of sagebrush, grassland and rangeland where the pine forests are now, at high elevations, and down among the spruce, fir and ponderosa pine. That's where the Nlakapamux territory is, as well as that of the Okanagan and Ktunaxa.

As if that weren't bad enough, in the north, where pine forests are dominant at low elevations, the Secwepemc, the Tsilhqot'in and the Dakelh-speaking peoples are watching their forests disappear entirely. Pine beetles usually infest only older trees, but lately they have been killing trees less than 20 years old. There's no telling what will come up in their place.

Around the world, UNESCO, Conservation International and the World Wide Fund for Nature have documented direct relationships between biological diversity and cultural diversity, between the loss of forests and the loss of aboriginal culture and language. When the trees go, communities disperse and languages die.

About a third of Canada's native bands can be found in British Columbia, where a rich legacy of ecological diversity is matched by aboriginal linguistic diversity. At least seven of the 11 linguistic families found in Canada occur in B.C., and within those seven families are at least 30 languages. Dozens of aboriginal communities lie in the path of the new plague. Many have already been hit, and hit badly.

"I'm not saying the sky is falling," Dr. Hebda says, "but there is a transformation of everything going on, in the landscape, the forest, the atmosphere, our communities, and our economies. This will obviously mean a transformation of aboriginal culture too."

That transformation is already well under way among the Dakelh-speaking people who occupy a vast region of dead and dying lodgepole pine in northern B.C. Among them are the Tlazten, about 800 people in several remote communities, the largest of which is Tache, about 65 kilometres north of Fort Saint James.

The Tlazten have always known mountain pine beetles, but no one has seen anything like this, says local resident Celestine Thomas, 75. The first thing she noticed after the forests turned red was that the squirrels and the rabbits started vanishing. Then, 22 moose were found dead "from ticks." Now, the trap lines are coming up empty, and it's getting harder to find devil's club, for medicine.

Veronica Campbell, 54, who lives in Fort St. James, says Shastzulh Mountain used to be covered in snow year-round, but not now. Even the songbirds are leaving, and so are the woodpeckers. "The place is becoming a desert," she says. "There's not much here that's left to pass on to our children. We might become extinct, that's what I'm afraid of. We don't stand a chance."

To the southwest of the Tlazten are the Stellaten people, whose main reserve lies about 150 kilometres west of Prince George on the highway to Prince Rupert. About half of the community's 420 people live on the reserve, and while joblessness is high, many were already employed in logging and sawmilling when the beetles came.

At the time, there was great hope that increased logging, to "salvage" beetle-infested trees, would jump-start the reserve economy and put the community on a more solid, competitive footing. There was also optimism about a revival in the Dakelh language, which only about two dozen Stellaten people still speak.

Now, everyone's optimism is quickly dimming, Stellaten chief Patrick Michell says. Nobody expected the scale of the infestation. First, the animals started to move out of the area. Then strange things started happening. A huge cougar began to prowl around the reserve, and in the nearby town of Fraser Lake, dogs and cats started to go missing. Soon, the whole forest was dying, along with everything in it.

The region's annual allowable cut suddenly shot up to three million cubic metres of timber, but Mr. Michell says his people soon found there was no way they could compete with the big forest companies. And the windfall won't last anyway. The quota is expected to fall back to about 70,000 cubic metres a year within 15 years.

"This is going to leave ghost towns," he adds. "The question is whether it's going to change our village into a ghost town."

A beetle-killed pine can stay standing and hold its value for years after its death, and forest companies are scrambling to "salvage" as much of the pine as they can. That scramble has boosted the annual cut in B.C.'s interior by one-third, or roughly 12.73 million cubic metres of wood.

To get an idea how much that is, picture a convoy of fully loaded logging trucks, bumper to bumper, from Vancouver to Toronto -- and then back again. That's just the amount of "extra" timber coming out of B.C.'s beetle-ravaged pine forests now, every year.

Among the companies cutting all these trees is Canfor Corp., now the world's second-largest forest company. Its pine is being processed at high-tech "super mills" like the one the company opened two months ago in Houston, an old logging town a morning's drive west of Stellaten on the highway to Prince Rupert. The Houston mill is capable of churning out 600 million cubic metres of wood every year. That's almost 10 times the annual output of the average Ontario sawmill.

"When I think about the future now, what I worry is that I will see an empty reserve," Mr. Michell says. "I see only a handful of people here, with nowhere else to go."

The prospects are perhaps not so bleak, far to the southeast, in the dry, rolling hills of the Secwepemc territory. But Ron Ignace, 59, former chair of the Assembly of First Nations' chiefs committee on languages and the long-time chief of the Skeetchestn community, east of Kamloops, is under no illusions about the threat the beetle infestation presents to aboriginal communities.

"It's taken a long time for people to see the connections between biological diversity and cultural diversity," he says. "There is a sense of hopelessness about this, but when people find there are others out there, working on language, they fight hard."

His wife, Marianne , a widely respected anthropologist and linguist, is among those "working on language" in B.C., and she's quick to point out that the dilemma is not so simple as forest loss resulting in language loss. "It goes the other way around too."

Language loss is often a function of dispossession and the loss of control over land and resources, she says. Lose that control, and the forest goes -- which has been the story of B.C.'s aboriginal peoples since the arrival of smallpox.

Now, of more than 6,000 people in 16 far-flung communities, perhaps only 200 are fluent in Secwepemc, a beautiful language that relies heavily on verbs and verb constructions, and is averse to naming things or people. (It is even Secwepemc custom to avoid directly naming people in conversation.) When spoken, it sounds like no European language: There are twice as many consonants, along with pops and clicks and glottal stops -- and a lot going on at the back of the throat.

"I think people are realizing now how precious these languages are, and how precarious things are getting," Marianne Michell says. "And with the loss of language goes the loss of detailed local knowledge."

Back at Spences Bridge, at Vicky's Café, David Walkem drinks the last of his coffee. He is talking about the loss of knowledge -- the elaborate technique and methodology required to manage forests with prescribed burning.

"What I don't know is whether the damage in our area could get any worse," he says. "We met Simon Fraser just a few miles from here, when he came through in 1808. Then there was the gold rush, and then the railways came through, and disease, and residential schools, and we've already lost almost all of our fluent speakers. But you know, we're the lucky ones, around here. It's not like all of our forests are going to die.

"Still, we're going to have to bring fire back, somehow. We should never have stopped. But for a lot of it, it's too late. The forest isn't the same. Everything would go up. It would blow up like a bomb. It would burn the soil and everything, and there would be nothing left."

Terry Glavin is a writer, conservationist and adjunct professor with the University of British Columbia's fine arts department. His latest book is entitled Waiting for the Macaws, and is published by Penguin Group (Canada).