Thirteenth Blog

Sunrise outside my unit

I have been thinking about writing a blog about many problems residents of Shamattawa First Nations community face ever since the unfolding of events at Attawapiskat First Nations.

Just like most Canadians who have never experienced life in the reserves I was under the impression that the government of Canada took good care of the first nation communities and that the core of the problems laid with mismanagement on parts of the local chiefs and counsels. I must say that even after living here for more than a year I was still under the same false impression that members of the community receive hefty allowances to live a pretty comfortable life. But after a couple of days of research I was shocked to find out how short changed the locals really are, and still cant believe the amount of money they have to survive on in this harsh environment.

A storage in the community, 3:45pm

I talked to some of my local friends and asked them about average income and cost of living in this community. What I have found is astonishing. I am pretty sure many of you, my non-First Nation friends, will feel the same after reading this blog.

Here are some of the facts I manged to gather. I must say that some of the numbers might not be exact since I decided to be very conservative and take the minimum for costs and expenses and maximum numbers for income and government subsidies.


Social Assistance (Welfare cheque):
   
   $371 per adult per month

   $646 per child over the age of 6 per month

   $663 per child under the age of 6 per month

I was told those who are disabled receive a slightly higher rate which I am sure can not be higher by a few percents of the above sum.

Basic Expenses

$100 per month, house maintenance fee

$100 minimum per month, hydro bill (could be much more depending on the number of appliances)

$60 per month, for a land phone line with a Canada wide long distance plan

$80-$120 per month, for satellite TV (if they chose to subscribe)

$1000 per month, for fuel for heating ( Many in the community simply cant afford this fee and cut woods to keep warm!)

I would like to remind you that it gets pretty cold up here with typical low of about -30 for many winter nights. The houses that I have visited are poorly insulated or not insulated at all which can increase the amount of wood needed to keep the place warm. Not to forget the health hazards associated with burning woods in an indoor environment with almost non-existing ventilation.

Class Party

Running Water
There are houses without running water up here as well. Houses that not only don’t have running water but not toilets either so these people have to either head out in the freezing cold or have to use buckets!

Poor Quality of Tap Water
The other major issue is the poor quality of running water in this community. I have been here for more than a year and still can not bring myself to drinking the water. I take water from a spring which is about 3-4km away from the reserve on a pretty rough dirt road which is often inaccessible due to either mud or snow. There is however the option of buying water but that could cost you a lot of money up here. To refill a 20L container we have to pay $9. If you didn’t have a container, it could cost from $17-$20. Bottles of water can cost up to $3 per half a litre.

Class Party

Overcrowded Housing
Due to whatever reason, I wont speculate the supposedly financial rewards of having many children, houses are extremely overcrowded. It is quite normal to have families of more than 8 living in a house with two or three bedrooms.

Cost of Food
In my mind one of the biggest problems many northern communities face is the lack of quality and affordable food. Most reserves have a single blood-sucking food chain that charges an arm and a leg for basic food items at the lowest possible quality. A four-litre jug of milk costs $13.29 with expiry date of no more than 7-8 days. A loaf of cheap white bread costs about $5. There are a few items in the produce department but are too expensive for most locals to afford. Price is only half of the problem. The more sinister issue is the poor quality of the items available up here. There are shelves after shelves of ready made hot dogs and hamburgers, rows upon rows of pops, chips, candies, yet you would have a hard time finding juice and fruits. It is cheaper to buy pop than buying water which forces many to drink pop instead of water. I cant count how many times I have seen kids come to school in the morning having chips and pops as their take away breakfast. As a result more than half of the kids are missing numerous teeth, and unfortunately more chronic health problems are sure to follow.

A family can spend all the monthly money they receive from the government on food that may sustain them for one week only! It is no wonder that there is always a long line up at the town’s nursing station. Which brings me to my next point.

Cost of Health Care
Its true that the health care is free, but there is nowhere near the level of care people receive in other parts of the country. If it did, this place wouldn’t have one of the highest rate of TB in the world. I can understand its hard to bring in resident doctors up here but wouldn’t it be possible to have better incentives to have doctors up here. I can see them being successful with bringing in nurses with good enough incentives and am sure it would work if they used the same level of relative incentives with doctors. I can assure you that the cost of medical evacuation (medi-vac) at $10000 per flight would handsomely pay for a rotating resident doctor. I don’t know the exact number of medi-vacs per month but it is more than 25, as I often hear planes at odd times and most of those are for medi-vacs.

Class party

Government’s Claims
Every time there is a crisis, you hear the officials speaking of the enormous amount of money allocated to these communities. I would like to argue that very little of that money actually goes to the locals. If it is for health care, it is going to drug companies and airlines taking care of the problems that would have been easier to prevent. It would make much more sense to improve the quality of life than using urgent treatment of problems that keep coming back.

If money is allocated for infrastructure, it always goes to outside firms with little oversight to the quality of their work. If things break the locals are always the first to blame. It is much easier this way, since there was no real government inspection of these projects. 

The government might as well hand the money to the outside firms, since most of it goes directly to them any ways. I have just learned that the grocery chain charges locals a fee for cashing their social service cheque in order for them to spend it at that very same grocery store!


I feel like I can go on and on and on, but I am sure you are aware of many of the issues I have mentioned above. I do however want you to crunch these numbers I have mentioned and see whether it was possible to survive on the allocated money. To me it is heart breaking to see the true owners of this country suffer so much in a country so well developed and so rich in natural resources which belonged to them in the first place!