Indigenous and Northern Affairs Committee on June 7th, 2022

[The Chair, Liberal, Marc Garneau]

Thank you very much, Mr. Shimooka.

Now we'll go to either Grand Chief Fox or Mr. McKay.

The two of you have five minutes combined, so please go ahead.

[Grand Chief Derek Fox, Nishnawbe Aski Nation]

Thank you.

Good afternoon, everyone. I'd like to first of all acknowledge that we're on the unceded Algonquin Anishinabe territory.

I appreciate this opportunity to appear before this committee on behalf of the 49 first nations of Nishnawbe Aski Nation.

Emergency management is critical for first nations, especially our remote communities. It has been six years since the tragedy in the Pikangikum First Nation, which claimed nine innocent lives, including that of Amber Strang, a five-month-old infant, and three generations of her family. There have been many other similar tragedies, including the fatal house fire in the Sandy Lake First Nation in January, which claimed the lives of three children. These fires were preventable tragedies, and lives will continue to be lost without meaningful action.

The Ontario Chief Coroner's Table on understanding fire deaths in First Nations examined fire-related deaths in 20 communities, including seven NAN first nations, over the last decade. The report confirms what our leaders have been saying for years: Too many innocent lives have been lost in tragic house fires that might have been prevented if safety measures and prevention services had been in place.

The report found that first nations children under 10 had the highest fire-related mortality rates. Communities with no year-round road access had the highest number of fire fatalities. Eighty-six percent of fatal fires in first nations communities had either no or non-operational smoke alarms in the housing structure. Fatal fires where the primary sources of heating were wood stoves or wood heaters were highest in communities with no year-round road access.

Everyone should be able to go to bed and expect to see their families in the morning. It is unacceptable that our children are at high risk.

Despite numerous reports over the last few years, our communities have continued to suffer losses from tragic house fires. These reports state that our communities need resources, training, updated equipment and the ability to service and maintain equipment and related infrastructure to deal with and prevent fires. In the last decade, we've seen minimal improvements in these areas, primarily due to a lack of will to support proposals and initiatives.

In 2021, NAN identified the following priorities for major improvements to fire safety and prevention: increase fire safety awareness and education through Amber's fire safety campaign; implement a standardized service delivery model across NAN territory; and ensure that community infrastructure and housing conditions are acceptable and built to code.

These are solid recommendations that require action.

House fires are not the only threat to our communities. On-reserve first nations in Ontario are 18 times more likely to be evacuated due to floods, forest fires, a failure of community infrastructure and severe weather events, compared to the general population of Canada. More than 80% of these emergencies occur in NAN territory. These emergencies are only increasing in frequency, severity and duration due to climate change, and are especially devastating in remote communities, where the lack of services, capacity and infrastructure are detrimental to an efficient response and recovery.

Last summer was a record-setting forest fire season in northern Ontario, particularly in northwestern Ontario, which is NAN territory. Thousands of NAN community members were evacuated because of smoke and fires threatening their health, homes and safety. Despite these threats, some community members risked their lives by staying behind or returning to their communities, rather than remaining in seriously inadequate conditions in faraway locations. Evacuated community members from one community were forced to stay in a school gymnasium without adequate washrooms or showers. Those who didn't evacuate stayed in their communities without access to basic health services and policing.

The distances that remote communities must travel for evacuations can be immense. For example, last year, hundreds of Deer Lake First Nation residents were evacuated to Cornwall, Ontario. The direct overland distance from Deer Lake to Cornwall is 1,500 kilometres. That is further than from Ottawa to Corner Brook, Newfoundland. They were allowed one suitcase each, not knowing when they'd be able to return home or if they would have a home to return to.

This year has already seen an increase in communities struggling with flooding due to higher-than-normal amounts of snow and precipitation in the winter and spring. This has put homes and other infrastructure, including water treatment plants, at risk for damage and loss. For two fly-in communities this spring, flood waters covered the only road to the airports—their only source for incoming groceries and clean drinking water and the sole means for medical and emergency evacuation.

When a tragedy such as a house fire, a threat of forest fire, an outbreak or a flood happens, the chief and council and support workers must work at maximum capacity. They require immediate assistance from all available agencies. Emergency situations often lead to leadership and frontline workers becoming overwhelmed and requiring additional support and relief.

For fly-in communities, there are no nearby communities or municipalities with road access to provide quick relief, equipment, or additional supports in times of crisis. This reality caused undue stress a few weeks ago, when multiple NAN communities were scrambling to get sandbags into their communities. Due to shortages in northwestern Ontario, sandbags needed to be purchased and flown to tribal councils from as far away as Winnipeg.

States of emergency are often declared due to widespread trauma and persistent significant shortages of services and resources. Declaring a state of emergency should eliminate barriers to accessing accommodations and resources that are desperately needed, including such wraparound supports as health care and mental health services.

However, this is not always the case. We see a continued failure from the government to respond, which raises questions about whether the government understands or cares about the threats to our first nations. The emergency management concept we have presented outlines this and is the direction that the province and both levels of government should be headed in. The creation of a first nations-led emergency management service is a crucial part of saving lives and infrastructure in our NAN first nations, with the goal to establish and apply the same or higher standards for fire safety and emergency management as you see elsewhere in Canada.

This is the foundation for action towards a holistic and successful approach to emergency management for NAN first nations. Partners must acknowledge these issues and gaps and move forward together for a successful and culturally appropriate service delivery model that supports and empowers our first nations communities.

It must be understood that underfunding or shortchanging proposals for prevention ends up unnecessarily increasing the risk of both death and loss. The time for talking about this is over. As I always say, leadership is action.

Thank you. Meegwetch.

[The Chair, Liberal, Marc Garneau]

Thank you, Grand Chief.

We'll proceed with one round of questions, beginning with Mr. Shields.

Mr. Shields, you have six minutes.

[Martin Shields, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Shimooka, you were referring to a Hill Times article, which I read, that goes back through the history of the Buffalo, the Hercules, the Leonardo and up to the Airbus. For 20 years we've been looking at this. Could you just refresh us a bit more on where we can go with this?

I understand the F-85, but the workhorse we need in the north is a different plane from the F-85. What do we need to do to get this done, and do you think it can happen within the next five years?

[Richard Shimooka]

I think it's unlikely, given the situation we're in, that we will see any change in the capabilities that are available. Because of the unavailability of the C-295 Kingfisher for operational service, the Royal Canadian Air Force has been forced to utilize its C-130 fleet, specifically H models, to operate in the north and provide fixed-wing search and rescue capabilities across Canada. The problem is that the C-130 fleet has a life limit. It can be used only for a certain number of hours, after which it cannot be refurbished any further and must be taken out of service.

As we see right now, we haven't seen a gap in the capability that is being provided in the region. Given the unlikely outcome that a C-295 will operate.... Right now the government has actually said that it will not have entry into service until at least 2025. In reality, I do not believe it will actually meet that time frame at all, and we'll have to find a different solution.

I don't believe there will be any ability for the Canadian Armed Forces to change the current makeup of its fixed-wing search and rescue capability in the country. The problem is that five years from now, it's going to need a solution. It will not have enough flight hours left with the existing fleet to do search and rescue and all the other stuff it's required to do, such as transport, providing transport within Canada or outside of Canada—anything.

So it needs a response. The government must outline pretty quickly here what its response will be if the C-295 is unable to meet the requirements it's been set out to meet.

[Martin Shields, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

We've heard in committees about the barriers to economic development, challenges with health, and transportation issues in the north. At this point, you're saying it's handling it, but, I would guess, not handling it well, and that we have a real problem until the next plane comes into service—which is another issue in itself.

[Richard Shimooka]

The C-295 is specifically focused on fixed-wing search and rescue. It's a rapid-response capability for emergencies. Let's say there's a crash, somebody's lost, or a ship's in distress. That's specifically what that capability is focused on.

The problem is that in order to make up the gap the C-295 is unable to fill, it's utilizing other capabilities, specifically the C-130 fleet, which is a really important capability. It's probably the most important capability the Canadian Armed Forces have in terms of providing sovereignty in the north or aid for refugees in Africa. It's an extremely heavily utilized fleet.

The whole idea of the fixed-wing search and rescue program is to remove the requirement of the C-130 fleet's role in fixed-wing search and rescue. The exact opposite has happened. It's now the complete capability for doing fixed-wing search and rescue. In particular, the C-130s are used in emergency management roles in the north. In the future, they may not be able to do so, because we've used so many hours filling this gap.

[Martin Shields, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

The process of getting a plane to replace the C-295.... You must be familiar, from what I've read, with the shortcomings in the process to get a replacement.

[Richard Shimooka]

Yes. In 2004, there was a process to replace the Buffalo. There was only one aircraft identified by the Royal Canadian Air Force to replace the Buffalo at the time, and that was the C-27J. It was basically scrapped at the time, because they wanted a competition.

The revised competition that came after that loosened the restrictions, which allowed the C-295 to be selected. It has now become a serious problem, because that aircraft is seemingly unable to meet the requirements of the Canadian Armed Forces to do this mission.

[Martin Shields, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

Some of those deficiencies would be critical, when you're talking about the north and distances.... I'm looking at the information.

[Richard Shimooka]

Absolutely. Many of them are specific to the north. There are icing system issues and issues with power to weight. The likeliest problems have to do with its rough field-handling capabilities, which really restrict its ability to operate in the north from unprepared strips, gravel strips or whatnot.

[Martin Shields, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

When we're talking about sovereignty in the big picture—the F-85, as you mentioned.... That's one level. Without the other aircraft to fill the gaps that occur from many things, the overuse of one particular line and how it's stretched will risk all sorts of things in the north.

[Richard Shimooka]

Absolutely. I think this is probably one of the areas where there should be little disagreement. You can have disagreements over the security risks posed by Russia, China or whatever, but providing search and rescue is probably one of the most common public goods that everybody would agree upon.

The lack of ability for Canada to have or replace this fleet is actually pretty shocking. It's coming up to over 20 years now. I would think this would be something that should have been easily dealt with earlier, with very little disagreement, yet here we are today. We're now looking at, possibly, a third competition on this topic.

[The Chair, Liberal, Marc Garneau]

Thank you, Mr. Shields.

Mr. Badawey, you have six minutes.

[Vance Badawey, Liberal, Niagara Centre, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'm going to preface my comments by saying that one of the reasons I brought this study forward was to in fact create that action that Grand Chief Fox spoke about. With that said, what we as a committee need is for a report to go to the House, to the minister, for a reaction, and therefore to create that action.

I'm going to make a statement and I'm going to ask you a question. I'm going to make the statement because I need it on the record and I need the analysts to include it in their final report. When it comes to emergency preparedness, it's been mentioned in past meetings that, one, to move forward, a team has to be established within your community. That team has to embark upon making an emergency preparedness plan. As part of that, infrastructure capacities have to be recognized and identified. The infrastructure supports needed during emergencies have to be identified, hopefully in advance but sometimes that doesn't happen until the actual emergency happens, understandably. Advanced ancillary services have to be identified, such as your haz-mat, your PPE, as was mentioned, mutual aid with neighbouring communities if there are neighbouring communities, and other services that might be available to you, along with communications within your team and of course outside. Lots of times when an emergency happens, the community doesn't get prompted. If it's a water situation, for example, what prompts the community to actually recognize that there's an emergency? What opportunities and what infrastructure can you have in place to prompt the community? There could be an air raid siren, for example, and then when people hear that they would go to a certain radio station, with a battery-powered radio, of course. That would then prompt them to do what needs to be done.

With all that said, and with respect to the investments that have to be made, one, there is the community's strategic plan. That leverages not only emergency preparedness and ongoing infrastructure updates to emergency services to prepare for those situations, but also the investments for overall infrastructure capacities, even during times when there's no emergency. Those can include fibre, water and waste water, asset management declarations, habitat and community restoration after the fact, indigenous procurement, governance priorities and, of course, communication between ministries.

With all that said, I have two questions. Do you agree with that premise? That's so the analysts can include that on the record. Second, do you have any further comments on that?

[The Chair, Liberal, Marc Garneau]

Who are you directing it to?

[Vance Badawey, Liberal, Niagara Centre, ON]

That's for Grand Chief Fox and/or Mr. McKay.

Grand Chief Fox.

[Grand Chief Derek Fox]

Good afternoon. Thank you for the statement.

Yes, we definitely need that service. Before I proceed, I'm going to ask Mike McKay, our lead on this, to speak to some of the things you said shortly. Yes, emergency preparedness is much needed, I don't think there are many plans in place for our territory. What's happening in the north is fairly new. We have forest fires and flooding, situations that have never occurred in the history of man. I think those things are going to increase, so I believe we need to start planning at both levels of government and with our partners and tribal councils.

There's a lot of work to be done there, but when you talk about partners and neighbouring communities, there are tribal councils. There are a lot of nations within the Nishnawbe Aski Nation that need to work together also, so it's going to take a lot of collaboration as well as funding to start that process within NAN, and of course, that support from both levels of government, as you said, in a committee or whatever it might look like.

I'm going to ask Mike to speak quickly here.

[Michael McKay, Director, Housing and Infrastructure, Nishnawbe Aski Nation]

Sure. Thank you, Grand Chief.

I think within the current emergency management system, especially with our communities—there are 49 first nations in NAN, 33 of which are remote—a lot of times, an emergency event lands on the chief and council. Everything lands on the chief and council—emergencies and any sorts of phone calls. What we're proposing with what we submitted today is for investments in an emergency management service that can oversee and deliver a community emergency preparedness program to have on file and to update ongoing community emergency management plans. That's why it was important. What the NAN executive council is advocating for is to have the service in place to oversee, react and be prepared in the case of emergencies.

[Vance Badawey, Liberal, Niagara Centre, ON]

Mr. Chairman, how much time do I have?

[The Chair, Liberal, Marc Garneau]

You have 30 seconds.

[Vance Badawey, Liberal, Niagara Centre, ON]

I just want to solidify that we are in agreement with what was said earlier. I want to make sure that's on the record.

Second to that is the need to also align the investments that would be attached to emergency preparedness management to some of the other infrastructure needs you have as part of your growth plan in terms of new housing, for example, and the infrastructure that would support that growth for housing, industry, economy and things like that over and above the investments you're going to make for emergency preparedness. Would you agree with that as well?

[Grand Chief Derek Fox]

Yes.

[Vance Badawey, Liberal, Niagara Centre, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

[The Chair, Liberal, Marc Garneau]

Thank you very much.

Ms. Chabot, you have the floor for six minutes.