Rebecca Hookimaw, 17, walks in her homes property in the northern Ontario First Nations reserve in Attawapiskat, Ont., on Thursday, April 21, 2016. Hookimaw began drinking and taking pills and tried to commit suicide before and after the suicide of her sister Sheridan Hookimaw who was 13-years-old.Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
The many ills of Attawapiskat seem to be linked: despair among the young, overcrowded housing and bad financial management. It all comes together in an audit of the isolated Ontario reserve for 2014, which concluded that, in the midst of a housing crisis, there has been "unsubstantiated housing spending" of $1,842,260.
Surely it would be futile for the federal government to sue Attawapiskat, or its council members, for more than $1.8-million. The people of the reserve are quite poor enough.
At least three times in the past few years, Attawapiskat has declared a state of emergency. Reserves in northern Ontario seem to be especially prone to emergency conditions. In fact, there are now 28 active states of emergency in Ontario – with some reserves having more than one reason for declaring the status.
In 2013, the federal Auditor-General published a report on reserves' states of emergency. It recommended what it called a "risk-based all-hazards approach" with "prevention, preparedness, response and recovery." The federal government agreed with the recommendations, but the large number of declarations of states of emergency on reserves persist.
The state of emergency has become a chronic condition in many First Nations, especially in Ontario. Some appear to lurch from crisis to crisis. However, in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Quebec and the Atlantic provinces there are currently no reserves with an active state of emergency.
The "risk-based all-hazards approach" with prevention and preparedness would suggest that, at least in some regions of Canada – places where the state of emergency has become endemic – there should be some kind of co-management between the band councils and the federal government. Provincial governments help with emergencies, but that's because they may have equipment or personnel nearby; they generally don't have any constitutional obligation to help.
As things stand, the reserves often have to wait for yet another disaster to call upon Ottawa. The Auditor-General and the federal government agreed that there should be a continuing approach to troubles such as Attawapiskat's. None has yet emerged.