Tories take financial control away from troubled Northern Ontario reserve

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NDP Interim leader Nycole Turmel steps out of a shelter being used as temporary lodging in Attawapiskat, ON Tuesday November 29, 2011. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

OTTAWA - Opposition MPs urged the prime minister Wednesday to go see for himself the realities of life on a Northern Ontario reserve struggling with a housing shortage.

Stephen Harper said he's sending the auditors.

The federal government has taken control over public funding out of the hands of Attawapiskat and ordered an audit to find out where federal money spent in the Cree community has gone over the last five years and why it hasn't help ward off the housing crisis residents now face.

"The government has invested more than $90 million in this community and the results are not acceptable," Harper said.

"We are going to take further measures to ensure better outcomes."

The Opposition demanded a more humanitarian — and human — response, calling for both a short-term and long-term plan to address the reserve's needs.

"An entire Canadian community living in Third World country, that's what we see right now, in the Arctic cold," NDP Leader Nycole Turmel said.

"The prime minister should go and see by himself. You should sleep in a shack with a sleeping bag. You'll see the sleeping bags provided by the Red Cross is not the solution."

A spokesman for the prime minister said he had no immediate plans to visit the reserve.

Band officials could not be reached for comment.

Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan said emergency measures were being taken to make sure Attawapiskat has warm, dry shelter this winter in the face of the severe housing shortage that's left families living in tents without access to running water and electricity.

The decision to place the band under third party management was the appropriate step, he said.

"This allows us to move very quickly to address the needs that are there," Duncan told reporters Wednesday.

Harper will meet Thursday with Shawn Atleo, the head of the Assembly of First Nations.

While the meeting was set before this issue burst onto the national agenda, it's likely to be on the table, as will education.

The Cree community of about 2,000 had already been under co-management, meaning they were working together with a third party to organize their finances.

Placing the community under third-party management is the strongest form of intervention available to the federal government when it believes the health, safety or welfare of aboriginals is compromised and funding agreements aren't being honoured.

A 2010 evaluation of the government's policy estimated some 42 per cent of First Nations are under some kind of intervention.

The same study suggested the intervention policy is flawed, and doesn't help to address the root causes of problems on reserve.

"The major deficiency under the policy identified by the evaluation is capacity building," the evaluation found.

The government subsequently announced it was drafting a new policy, but officials couldn't say Wednesday whether it was in place.

Duncan said the government has recognized there's a need to build capacity, but also said First Nations had to be more transparent with their finances.

Attawapiskat is one of only 13 bands across the country that post their financial statements publicly, he conceded.

"That, perhaps, gave a degree of confidence that was not the proper confidence," Duncan said.

Of the $90 million spent by the government, approximately $28.6 million was allocated for infrastructure over the last five years, according to figures provided by the department.

A further $33.4 million was allocated for education, though the community still does not have a school since theirs was demolished because it was sitting on a pool of toxic gas.

New Democrat MP Charlie Angus said if Conservative officials wanted to know what was going on with the money, they could have spoken to the existing manager or at the very least gone to see the reserve.

"When the Red River floods, people show up. When Slave Lake burned, politicians showed up," said Angus, who represents the area of the reserve.

"Why are the people of Attawapiskat treated so differently? Why is it when it's a First Nations community in distress, this government's response is contempt?"

Liberal Leader Bob Rae urged the government to broaden its response to the problem.

"What troubles me about this whole debate is that everyone’s going to focus on this one community," Rae said.

"The government’s going to say we’re putting it under strong management, that’s going to solve the problem and everybody’s going to walk away from their television sets and think the problem is solved.

"The problem isn’t solved. The housing issue is catastrophic right across these communities across Northern Canada."