Indigenous Services Canada said fire deaths on reserves are “deeply concerning and highlight the urgent need for better fire protection.”

Toronto Star: The federal government’s “discriminatory” underfunding of fire protection on First Nation reserves is responsible for Indigenous people perishing in blazes at dramatically higher rates than other Canadians, a lawsuit filed by two Ontario First Nations alleges.

Oneida Nation of the Thames, near London, and Sandy Lake First Nation, 600 kilometres northwest of Thunder Bay, allege “unequal” and “grossly inadequate” fire protection exposes First Nations people living on reserve to a “substantially heightened risk to their lives, property and well-being.”

The claim, filed in Federal Court on Friday against the Attorney General of Canada, takes the rare step of asking the court to retain jurisdiction over the case “until such time as Canada has adopted funding policies for fire protection services on reserve in Ontario that are consistent with the Charter.”

“We think a supervisory order like this is necessary to make sure Canada develops a new funding regime that truly responds to the needs of First Nations and protects their people,” says Krista Nerland, a lawyer with Toronto law firm Olthuis Kleer Townshend LLP, which is representing the two communities.

“Canada cannot treat First Nations people living on reserve as if their lives and safety are worth less than the lives and safety of non-Indigenous Canadians.”

The allegations have not been proven in court. No statement of defence has yet been filed. Indigenous Services Canada (ISC), the federal ministry responsible for First Nations issues, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the claim.

‘A stain on the conscience of this nation’

A recent Statistics Canada analysis of 700 fire deaths across Canada between 2011 and 2020 found 20 per cent of the victims were First Nations, Métis or Inuit.

That proportion of deaths is four times higher than the percentage of Indigenous people in Canada.

A 2021 report from Ontario’s Chief Coroner’s table found children living on a reserve in Ontario are 86 times more likely to die in a fire than children living elsewhere.”

In a written statement this week responding to general questions from reporters prior to the lawsuit being filed, ISC called the numbers of First Nations fire deaths “deeply concerning” and said they highlight the “urgent need for better fire protection in First Nations communities. The Government of Canada takes these reports seriously and knows that there is more work to be done.”

That work includes a First Nations Fire Protection Strategy, developed with the Assembly of First Nations, which focuses on “long-term, community-based solutions.”

Canada cannot treat First Nations people living on reserve as if their lives and safety are worth less than the lives and safety of non-Indigenous Canadians.

The lawsuit alleges the Canadian government has been aware of the problem on First Nations for two decades and has done “nothing to address it.”

The government inaction has violated Indigenous people’s Charter right to life and security of person and amounts to “a stain on the conscience of this nation.”

A deadly fire brought systemic issues to light

In Oneida, there have been 30 structural fires since 2016 and the community has run out of patience, says fire chief Glenn Hill.

“We put our name on the lawsuit because the way we’re doing things isn’t working, it’s clear. We need change.”

In December 2016, a fire killed a father and four children. There were no working fire hydrants to fight the blaze. So firefighters had to use water from a tanker truck, which had to repeatedly leave the scene to collect water.

“It left a hole in our community, but also highlighted the issues we have been facing for far too long,” says Todd Cornelius, chief of Oneida “That fire brought to light some of the systemic issues that First Nations communities are facing across the country — both underfunded housing and inadequate fire services.”

Almost eight years later, Oneida still doesn’t have enough functioning hydrants on its reserve and those that exist are in need of repair, Cornelius says. 

The First Nation has been requesting funding to install hydrants that would cover the entire community for the past 26 years without success, the claim reads.

“Until we get new building codes and proper standards in First Nations housing, we’re fighting a losing battle,” says Arnold Lazare, a longtime fire service member in the Mohawk community of Kahnawake and the deputy operations chief of the Indigenous Fire Marshalls Program.

The report was filed in court as part of a $10-billion class action lawsuit against the Canadian government. 

Canada’s Indigenous Services minister says ‘too many’ lives lost to fire

When the federal government launched the First Nations Fire Prevention Strategy, Minister of Indigenous Services, Patty Hadju, said in a statement that a lack of building and fire codes along with poor housing conditions and overcrowding means “there are far too many First Nation lives lost to fires.”

To date, the government has invested nearly $31 million for smoke alarms, fire extinguishers and carbon monoxide alarms for homes on reserves, performing fire safety assessments, firefighting training and conducting fire safety inspections, reads the ISC’s written statement. 

The IJB interviewed a dozen First Nations fire chiefs, many of whom said they have seen little evidence of that investment in their communities and that they were not consulted on what they need. 

Oneida fire chief Hill says reaching fire protection equity with nearby municipal services remains a fiction.

He currently has 26 volunteer firefighters. About a quarter of them are not certified to meet the standards held by neighbouring municipal services. 

And when firefighters in Oneida become certified and trained, they often opt for jobs in municipal services because they can have a career with pay and benefits they could never have as volunteers, says Oneida’s Cornelius.

First Nations located close to a municipality with a fire department can strike agreements with them to provide fire protection. But under those agreements, federal fire protection funding that would come to the First Nation is given instead to the municipality, the claim reads.

And those agreements prioritize protecting municipal residents over protecting members of the First Nation, the lawsuit alleges, including terms that excuse municipalities from providing life-saving services if their equipment is already engaged or to recall equipment deployed to a First Nation if it is needed in the municipality. 

“These terms expressly relegate First Nations people living on reserve to second-class status,” the claim alleges.

In its statement, ISC said First Nations band councils have the flexibility to establish their own services or contract with neighbouring municipalities with funding support from the federal government. 

“In a true nation-to-nation partnership with First Nations communities we will work to improve infrastructure resiliency, and increase fire awareness, prevention, and protection efforts on reserve.”

The Investigative Journalism Bureau is a non-profit newsroom based at the University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health

By Ryan McMahon, Investigative Journalism Bureau and Robert Cribb Staff Reporter

Robert Cribb is a Toronto-based investigative reporter for the Star. Reach him via email: rcribb@thestar.ca