Council shows leadership
Small communities across Saskatchewan, aboriginal and non-aboriginal alike, have something to learn from the response of the Saskatoon Tribal Council in the wake of the recent loss of two young lives to a house fire at the Makwa Sahgaiehcan First Nation.
Chief Felix Thomas announced that his tribal council is conducting a review of fire protection services in each of its seven communities — Kinistin Saulteaux, Mistawasis, Muskeg Lake, Muskoday, One Arrow, Whitecap Dakota and Yellow Quill — saying safety is an area where STC hasn’t done enough.
“We knew eventually it was a matter of time before some kind of tragedy struck in one of our communities if we don’t do something now,” he said, adding that STC wants each First Nation to have a base level of support to provide adequate protection.
Although Chief Thomas notes the review isn’t likely to uncover any new issues on reserves, where much of the already inadequate capital funding from Ottawa goes to tackle pressing needs such as housing shortages, assessing the firefighting capability that exists surely is a great start to figuring out what more needs to be done.
Premier Brad Wall is right to commend Chief Thomas and the STC for providing the kind of leadership communities require, and for putting the protection of citizens at the top of the list. Mr. Wall also offered the services of provincial fire commissioner Duane McKay’s office and the Emergency Management and Fire Safety branch to help First Nations put in place the needed protective measures.
Given the national attention garnered by the deaths of two more aboriginal children on a reserve in this province, bringing to four the total of such deaths in house fires since January, it would be welcome to see some leadership similar to Chief Thomas’s from the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations on the issue.
While it’s certainly the case that the federal government’s failure to provide adequate funding increases to First Nations to keep pace with population growth is a huge factor in the abysmal conditions that contribute to such things as a disproportionate number of fire deaths, the FSIN could be prompting its chiefs to take their cue from Chief Thomas and identify the safety needs of their communities.
Even if the resources provided by Ottawa fall far short of the needs when it comes to firefighting, the provincial government already is working with First Nations communities to provide fire education, smoke detector and inspections programs.
Mr. McKay’s department assists with co-ordinating fire response in communities without their own fire departments, organizing and training a volunteer fire department at no cost to the First Nation, and even providing equipment caches and dispatching EMFS officers and rapid response teams when a community needs additional support in a fire emergency.
Given the existence of such supports, what’s needed is leadership at the community level to properly assess the needs and co-ordinate the resources available from all sources, both federally and provincially, to develop a fire response plan. While that won’t replace fire prevention through such measures as building reserve homes to national standards, it can save many lives.
The editorials that appear in this space represent the opinion of The StarPhoenix. They are unsigned because they do not necessarily represent the personal views of the writers. The positions taken in the editorials are arrived at through discussion among the members of the newspaper’s editorial board, which operates independently from the news departments of the paper.