NDP calls for support for First Nations dealing with climate disasters

OTTAWA — Last week, NDP critic for Indigenous Services Lori Idlout (Nunavut) and deputy critic Niki Ashton (Churchill—Keewatinook Aski) wrote to the Minister of Indigenous Services calling for concrete steps to help First Nations dealing with the climate crisis and extreme-weather events.

Just last month, the Auditor General told the parliamentary committee for Indigenous and Northern Affairs that “Indigenous Services Canada did not provide the support First Nations communities needed to manage emergencies such as floods and wildfires.”

In their letter, Idlout and Ashton urge the federal government to change course and deliver the necessary funding and infrastructure First Nations need to deal with worsening climate disasters.

“First Nations across the country are at high risk of flooding and wildfires, and we cannot afford to wait,” wrote Idlout. “Many of the First Nations communities at risk of wildfires are remote and your government has continued to withhold the resources they need to receive the support they need, when they need it the most.”

Idlout and Ashton explained that over the last 13 years, on average, a First Nation has been faced with an emergency leading to displacement just over once every three days.

“The Liberals must act. Communities need a range of investments from flood protection, to increased cellphone coverage, to funding and training of local wildfire firefighting crews to investment in infrastructure, including all-weather roads. Lives are on the line,” said Ashton.

Idlout and Ashton’s letter comes after Jagmeet Singh was in the Northwest Territories last week calling on the Liberal government for more support to help all communities across the country dealing with wildfires and climate related disasters.