As Cat Lake suffers, Ottawa and Ontario dither
It has been one month since a state of emergency was declared in Cat Lake First Nation, 180 km north of Sioux Lookout, where children live in mouldy homes and grapple with the resulting respiratory conditions and festering skin.
On Tuesday, Nashie Oombash, a 48-year-old woman reportedly made sick by exposure to mould, died in the community.
Oombash appears to be the latest casualty of inadequate, overcrowded or unsafe housing in Cat Lake, where children sleep between the walls and wood stoves to keep warm. Such conditions can be seen in Indigenous communities from coast to coast to coast.
Yet one month into the official crisis in Cat Lake, no urgency is evident at any level of government. Despite the many promises, no urgency is evident anywhere in Indian country.
Like so many Indigenous communities, Cat Lake is a victim of buck-passing among various levels and departments of government.
Ontario continues to blame Ottawa for shortchanging First Nations communities even though the province is a signatory to Treaty #9, which encompasses most of northern Ontario, including Cat Lake.
Most of the northern First Nations communities in Treaty #9 declared a collective housing emergency back in 2014 due to health and construction problems.
Ontario indicated a few weeks ago that it would provide some form of temporary housing. The community is still waiting.
And not to sound like Onta- rio, but what about Ottawa?
It’s been more than 10 years since the House of Commons unanimously endorsed Jordan’s Principle, which states that no Indigenous child living on or off reserve should be denied health services while governments argue over who should pay for them.
Federal inaction in Cat Lake is yet another illustration of how little that endorsement seems to have meant in practice.
The new federal Indigenous services minister, Seamus O’Regan, promised he’d work with bureaucrats and the community to get an action plan in place.
That was the third week of January, nearly a month before Oombash’s death.
The crisis in Cat Lake presents O’Regan’s first real test in his new role.
He is slated to meet with Cat Lake Chief Matthew Keewaykapow, Ontario Regional Chief RoseAnne Archibald and Nishnawbe Aski Nation Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler in Thunder Bay this Thursday to discuss how to transport building supplies over winter roads to the community. Keewaykapow is also expecting O’Regan to take some time out to visit and see the conditions first-hand.
Keewaykapow is calling for temporary housing units for the homes that are full of mould and he wants equipment to fix the rest.
There’s only one way for O’Regan to pass this test — and it is not to point the finger at Ontario. He must provide the urgent response that has so far been absent.
Ottawa’s jurisdiction over Indigenous health care leaves no doubt about its obligation to Cat Lake. Treaty #9 makes clear that Ontario, too, has a responsibility to act.
That these governments choose to point fingers at each other rather than work together to redress this crisis is a shame. It needn’t be this way. On a recent trip to Cat Lake, Sol Mamakwa, the Ontario MPP from Kingfisher Lake First Nation, and federal NDP MP Charlie Angus, who represents Timmins-James Bay, agreed that Ottawa and Queen’s Park both have a role to play.
“If this was Owen Sound or Waterloo (both levels of government would) be moving mountains,” Angus said. Mamakwa has been to Cat Lake a number of times and every time he leaves he is frustrated and disturbed.
“I’m not a physician but I’ve seen some of the skin issues the young children are facing. I was given a list of 100 kids who need to be seen by a doctor,” said Mamakwa.
A respirologist was in the community this past weekend, assessing the health of children with red rashes and breathing issues. “A young mom came to talk to us and her 12-year-old daughter has this skin condition all over her face. She covers her face when she comes out of her room. Her social life is on her iPad. Her mom was crying, she is getting really worried about her daughter,” Mamakwa said.
Keewaykapow told me he is “perplexed” by the lethargic response to the crisis in Cat Lake. Help seems to be arriving “so slow,” he notes.
Mamakwa is less perplexed than appalled.
“We need to start talking about humanity,” Mamakwa said. “This is not about jurisdictional responsibility. We are people, too. Treat us like it.”