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Does anyone know what the gov't is doing about Attawapiskat? As far as I know, coverage has stopped. Please correct me if I'm wrong!
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Here's a few of the latest articles:
...it is what it is... -
Coverage has not stopped... The CBC is following the story closely.
Now before the likes of Zeke et al start with their mantra of :they should be accountable"... there's a few things to try and understand about this community.
Back in the lat 50s and 60s the government planted radar stations along the coast the the Hudson Bay and along with leftovers of fatherless kids from countless liaisons with CF and US military members and PCB contamination which was discovered in the late 90s this community is classified as a remote, fly in community. The only time there is any resemblance of a road is in the winter when an ice road can be used. During the summer months, to get there you either take a barge up the bay or fly in. Getting supplies in has always been an issue, the local store is a left over from the Hudson bay days - Northern Co-op. A jug of milk in the summer is about 16.00 and a five pound bag of flour is about 12 bucks. In the winter the costs go up because of freezing risks... fresh fruits are a luxury not because the members can't afford them but because after about 15 days in transit to get there, they aren't exactly fresh.
Most folks up there survive on country foods... iow, game, fish, indigenous plants and berries. When they found PCB had been uptaken into the food chain in 1998, it caused concerns for the several Cree communities in the area of the Mid Canada/Pine Tree Radar lines.
Fuel supplies are bought in the summer and shipped north once a year. They pay whatever the going rate at the time of purchase is and if the prices drop, too bad.
Medical care is provided by nurses with an extended scope of practice and some are Nurse Practitioners. There is a small hospital in Fort Albany but most care is provided in Kingston Ontario at the Hotel Dieu/KGH. The budget for medical care is lumped into the payment from AAND.
Sure the government provides funding for housing and it's based on figures taken from reserve communities in the south that have road and urban areas nearby. The GOC/treasury board has a weird cost calculation that in all the years I've done GOC financing, have never been able to figure out the rationale for it. It ebbs and flows according to who is sitting in the house. A house in the far north may cost the same as a house in the south but when you add in the transportation costs to get the material to the site, that's where the money disappears. What seems to never be on the tenders for these jobs is the cost allowance for getting materials on site. So if the bid says, 250K for a house...and the cost for material transportation is 70k that, you get a whole lot of cost cutting on labour, materials and final product to make up the difference.
The thing is it's easy to say why don't they leave? But unlike the American reservation system, this land has always been theirs. They were not relocated. I've worked in this area and there is a real and deep connection to their territory. My host showed me a carving in the landing rocks that his ancestor carved in 1645 to mark his meeting with the HBC. He also showed me hunting grounds that have always been in his family for as long as anyone can remember. I've seen pre-contact camp areas that his family has been going to - the location passed on to each generation.
Ontario is the biggest population and economic province in Canada, yet their government doesn't see the reason why infrastructures should extend to the north. According the the way money is spent, everything seems to stop at Sudbury... the rest of the province is remote and always forgotten about. I don't think the USA (with the exception of Alaska) has any remote states where the population relies on flying in or ice roads.
As a northerner, I understand where this band is coming from when it comes to making every dollar count... especially when the beancounters are sitting in a plush office in Tunney's Pasture and everything is zeroed to what the cost of a starbucks is at the Rideau centre.A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. — Robert A. Heinlein
I can see the wheel turning but the Hamster appears to be dead.Comment
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You would think that getting everybody housed would be a priority. Guess not. Reading this just helps point out that it's not only the US who deals badly with the original population. Makes me wonder what pocket some of that money has gone into.
There's no way to clean up PCB is there? Those people are going to have long lasting health problems even if they can get out of the moldy living enviroments.Take nothing for granted. Life can change irrevocably in a heartbeat.
I will not feed the troll-well, I will try.Comment
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The funding formulas up here are based in decades old census figures. When Bill C31 was introduced many communities increased their population but the funding remained the same. Think of it this way, if Atlanta were to receive federal funding for housing based on its 1900 population census, the city could never achieve the goal of housing everyone with a population number of 2011. Reserve communities are faced with the same rationale. Add in the cost of getting supplies, materials and labour into a fly-in community and any money is quickly eaten up with unseen costs (and by that I mean costs that occur but don't have tangible evidence -like shipping costs etc).Originally posted by subeeds View Post
As for the PCB contamination, it's being dealt with - slowly but the remediation of the soil is a priority. That said, with the lack of roads and viable means of transporting the contaminated soil out of the area, it has to wait each year for the ice roads. The province has some very strict regulations for transporting environmentally sensitive materials.
The strange thing about molds, in the north, they don't grow so well... the molds in the houses are caused by the contaminated materials that are shipped from the warmer south where they do grow abundantly. Again, it comes down to the lowest bid for the jobs. Lower bids mean lower end materials... materials that might otherwise be discarded for housing in the south.
Remember, everything has to be flown or barged in over a vast tract of land/ocean. Costs go up.A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. — Robert A. Heinlein
I can see the wheel turning but the Hamster appears to be dead.Comment
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It took Mike Holmes to tell it like it is... Stop building crap on the reserves..lol
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. — Robert A. Heinlein
I can see the wheel turning but the Hamster appears to be dead.Comment
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There are so many alternatives out there now for building. I do understand that building up there presents some unusual challenges. Maybe Holmes will get people more involved and come up with some viable, affordable ideas. There is no excuse for building crap, no matter where it's being built.Take nothing for granted. Life can change irrevocably in a heartbeat.
I will not feed the troll-well, I will try.Comment
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Gotta luv Mike Holmes!!Originally posted by yaahl View Post
I hope that they can provide some housing..quick!! Build a new school, even quicker, and while they're at it, provide some jobs and quit calling for evacuation of this place....it is what it is...Comment
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Thanks for the response. I do not watch TV so the net is my only source of news. Yaahl and Rose you have both been very informative. Ill make sure to follow CBC more closely. Is there coverage on television also?Comment
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I have been ignorant to this issue. I'm watching the special coverage report on it. Thanks again.Comment
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Further developments with the folks at Attawapiskat:
Now the government is offering to evacuate the families that have no housing until the ice roads are ready to bring in modular housing. This comes after the GOC telling the band office that they will have to pay 1300.00 cdn per diem to the third party management person.
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. — Robert A. Heinlein
I can see the wheel turning but the Hamster appears to be dead.Comment
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When I see the offer of the "sportsplex", all I can think of the Superdome and Katrina. Makes me shudder. I hope somebody gets their act together and get these people what they need before it's too late.Take nothing for granted. Life can change irrevocably in a heartbeat.
I will not feed the troll-well, I will try.Comment
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