Ottawa backs fire safety plan for First Nations
Minister supports new legislation to improve fire services on reserves following scores of deaths
The government will create an indigenous fire marshal’s office and improve tracking of fire-related data on reserves, Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett’s office said in a statement to the Star on Tuesday.
This commitment comes months after a Star investigation found at least 173 people have died in house fires in First Nations communities since the government stopped tracking the death toll in 2010. At least 25 of the dead are children.
The federal government supports creating new legislation governing fire protection and prevention services on First Nations reserves across the country, Bennett’s office confirmed.
“We will continue to work in full cooperation with the Aboriginal Firefighters Association of Canada and other key partners on these and other critical elements that we know are needed to enhance fire safety for First Nations communities across Canada,” the statement said.
Blaine Wiggins, director of the Aboriginal Firefighters Association, which has long pressed for these changes, said the government’s support under Bennett has been encouraging.
The Star investigation also found that similar recommendations had not resulted in action since at least 2013 despite repeated calls for action from First Nations leaders, fire prevention experts and — in one case — from Bennett herself.
“We’ve very excited to move this project to the next phase,” Wiggins said.
He couldn’t say when the new fire marshal’s office would be operational, but it could involve piloting the project in certain regions.
“We can only work as fast as our partners at Indigenous Affairs who provide the funding,” he said.
Following the Star’s series, Bennett first promised the government would start tracking on-reserve fire data and create a national fire marshal’s office should an upcoming report from Wiggins’ association recommend one. That report has now been released, and includes recommendations for a fire marshal’s office, as well as one for new legislation that applies the national fire and building codes on reserves.
Now armed with government support for new legislation, Wiggins said the next step on that file is to consult widely with First Nations political leadership across the country.
“We need to work collaboratively with the leadership to get support on what this new legislation is and what it could look like,” he said.
We don’t want to see any legislation imposed without broad community support, Wiggins said.
Meanwhile, new research released by the Ontario Native Fire Fighters Society helps illuminate just how poor fire protection services are in the province’s northern reserves.
According to a report by the society, only two of18 northern communities the association visited last winter had any organized fire protection services at all.
Seventeen of the communities had a fire truck, but not a single one met even basic Ministry of Transportation safety standards, the report says.
That contradicts a February statement to the Star from Indigenous and Northern Affairs, in which the Ministry claimed that only 2 per cent of First Nations communities are “underserviced” across the country. Six Nations fire Chief Matthew Miller understands better than most how bleak things can be.
“Some First Nations communities do not stand a chance,” Miller told the Star in an interview at a meeting of Ontario First Nation’s Chiefs on Tuesday.
“Many of the communities we visited, when we asked them what they do when there’s a fire, they didn’t even know who to call. One of the other communities that we spoke to, we said ‘Well, if you have a house fire, what do you do? “They said ‘we watch it burn.’ ” Miller and the Ontario Native Fire Fighters Society (ONFFS) have been on a years-long mission to gather data — not only to make their business case for adequate funding and support, but to understand the scope of the problem they face. Unlike nonFirst Nations communities, there is no central record-keeping on causes of fires, and so groups like ONFFS can’t target fire-prevention education campaigns. The patchwork data problem also extends to what equipment is available to First Nations. Allan Manitowabi, fire chief for Christian Island, said he’s seen that problem first hand.
“Equipment was basically dumped off in the communities (and) we don’t know where it went,” Manitowabi told the Star. “I think we need to have accountability on both sides of the coin.”
One official with ONFFS estimated that it would be a 15- to 25-year mission just to bring fire services in Ontario First Nations up to adequate levels. Steve Nolan, the president of ONFFS, said he doesn’t know if he’ll see it in his lifetime. Nolan is 52. “It’s sad that you have to stand back and watch a burning building and hope nobody is in there,” Nolan told the Star. “If that happened in mainstream society? Joe and Mary Taxpayer wouldn’t have it.
“You tell me what the difference is.”