Fly-in community appeals for aid

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This article was published 11/01/2022 (1520 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — A remote First Nation in northern Manitoba is running low on fuel and can’t open its ice road, among soaring COVID-19 cases.

Manto Sipi Cree Nation, a fly-in reserve 600 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg, has had one-10th of its population test positive in just 10 days, as reserves across the north declare pandemic lockdowns.

“It’s very scary,” Chief John Ross told the Free Press. “We need help with all the exhaustion here.”

The community, whose Cree name translates to God’s River, had 828 residents as of last month. One COVID-19 case emerged Dec. 28 — and the case count hit 79 on Jan. 8.

One-third of the community’s 150 households are isolating, as only those with symptoms or essential workers can get tested, under provincial policies.

The community is among at least 11 northern reserves that have implemented lockdowns, of the 26 represented by Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak.

Two nurses have fallen ill, and a dedicated team of volunteer delivery staff have started to burn out, Ross said Monday.

The winter road has only had 12 of its 71 kilometres cleared by the time the community went into lockdown, meaning gasoline and essential goods will need to be flown in.

NDP MP Niki Ashton (Churchill—Keewatinook Aski) said Ottawa might need to increase its funding for reserves to run checkpoints, food delivery, and nurse check-ups.

She and Ross asked officials late last week about deploying the Armed Forces, to help with logistics.

“The military was sent in when case counts were much lower than what they are right now, and we’re seeing a delay in providing these kinds of resources,” Ashton said. “The domino effect is quite serious.”

Since then, Ross met virtually with federal, provincial and First Nations officials. He said the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs committed late Monday to sending support staff and nurses.

“I think the AMC is not really supportive of the military coming, but any help will do for us,” Ross said, adding the military’s visit during a vaccination campaign last year boosted the community’s spirits.

Last week, Ottawa warned its military resources will be stretched thin if COVID-19 continues to spread at such high rates in numerous provinces, largely due to the Omicron variant.

As of Jan. 7, no northern Manitoba reserves had confirmed Omicron cases — despite the province doing some surveillance for the variant, which many chiefs believe is already circulating in their communities, as do the nurses at Manto Sipi.

Manitoba Health sends every reserve a weekly supply of rapid antigen tests from the province to test symptomatic patients for COVID-19 cases, in addition to rapid PCR tests reserved for unvaccinated and immunocompromised patients.

The department says among those with a positive antigen test, a sub-sample are swabbed and have their samples flown to Winnipeg for laboratory PCR testing “while we monitor the presence of Delta and Omicron variants in First Nation communities.”

Meanwhile, MKO Grand Chief Garrison Settee chastised the province Monday over its “reprehensible” ongoing closure of the Leaf Rapids Health Centre, a hospital that serves northern communities.

The province closed the hospital due to short-staffing Dec. 27 for a scheduled two weeks, only to extend the closure Monday, the day it was set to reopen.

MKO said the Northern health region never bothered to consult chiefs about extending the closure. The agency said it only learned Jan. 7 it would have to keep the centre closed, and notified bands the day after.

“(Our) goal is to open as soon as we can safely do so and in a way that is sustainable,” spokeswoman Twyla Storey wrote. The nearest hospital is 100 km away, in Lynn Lake.

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca