A new report shows that the Canadian government is not adequately funding emergency responses for First Nations communities who face fires, floods, and other disasters.
OTTAWA, Ont.-In June 2022, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Indigenous and Northern Affairs began a study on emergency preparedness, and security and sovereignty in the Arctic.
In June of 2023, the standing committee on Indigenous and Northern Affairs released its report studying Arctic Security and Sovereignty and Emergency Preparedness of Indigenous communities. Among other findings, the committee says that Indigenous Services Canada is failing to provide First Nations communities with adequate resources for emergency management to help mitigate the impacts of events like wildfires and floods.
"Overall, Indigenous Services Canada did not provide the support First Nations communities needed to manage emergencies such as floods and wildfires, which are happening more often and with greater intensity," said the Auditor General in their report provided to the committee.
Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) is the department responsible for ensuring First Nations receive emergency assistance services and negotiates emergency management agreements with the provinces and service providers.
Over the course of 10 meetings, the committee heard from 42 witnesses, including emergency preparedness experts, community leaders, academics and representatives from all three territories. In March 2023, members of the committee travelled to the Northwest Territories and Nunavut as part of their study.
Because of their remoteness, lack of funding and infrastructure, and limited resources, the report says that Indigenous communities are more vulnerable to emergencies such as wildfires and floods. In fact, First Nations peoples are "18 times more likely to be evacuated because of an emergency event compared to non-First Nations communities," according to the Assembly of First Nations Emergency Response Sector.
Karen Hogan, the Auditor General of Canada, pointed out that in the last 13 years, First Nations communities experienced more than 1,300 emergencies leading to the displacement of over 130,000 people. Other statistics reported include that the ISC spends four times more money responding to emergencies than preparing communities in advance. A backlog of community mitigation projects, such as culverts to mitigate flooding, were previously proposed by First Nations communities, but did not receive funding from ISC.
The committee also found that rather than focusing on emergency evacuations to a host community, keeping First Nations citizens on their lands and supporting them is more effective than relocating to a host community. The report notes that funding First Nations to remain on their lands in emergencies is less expensive and reduces the need for accommodation space in host communities.
The committee is recommending, among other things, that the Government of Canada:
• provide additional funding for mitigation projects;
• prioritize work on multilateral agreements for emergency services in First Nations communities;
• evaluate the best approach to implement emergency alert systems in Indigenous communities;
• streamline the Additions to Reserve process for communities whose lands are frequently affected by emergencies; and
• identify communities that do not have emergency response plans and provide resources necessary to develop those plans.
These findings come as the federal government has announced that this year's wildfire season is the worst that Canada has experienced in at least the past 20 years, and that Indigenous communities are at higher risk of being affected by fires.
At the time the report was released, 460 fires raged across Canada, creating more than 7.6 million hectares burned in 2023, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Center.
