Mould Causing Housing Crisis for First Nations Across Canada: NDP
- Staff
- Jan 30, 2019
- 1 min read
OTTAWA -- A housing crisis in a northern Ontario First Nation is the tip of a deep, systemic problem in communities across the country that requires the response of a task force, the federal NDP said Wednesday.
Senior government officials were to meet on Wednesday with community leaders in Cat Lake First Nation, several hundred kilometres north of Thunder Bay, to discuss a state of emergency the nation proclaimed earlier this month due to "profoundly poor conditions of housing."
A community declaration listed mould, structural issues and a lack of funds for routine maintenance as the causes of health problems including invasive bacterial diseases and lung infections.
Mould in Cat Lake constitutes a national shame, Ontario NDP MP Charlie Angus said Wednesday as he joined his colleagues Georgina Jolibois, Romeo Saganash and Niki Ashton to say mould in on-reserve housing is an invisible crisis that the federal government has known about at least since an auditor general's report in 2003.
A task force needs to examine the extent of mould in Indigenous communities across the country, the MPs said.
"We are demanding a new commitment on the eve of the first budget with the Treasury Board minister (Jane Philpott) that we understand understands this file, so we want to see that commitment right around the corner," Ashton said. "First Nations deserve it and they demand it."
During question period on Wednesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the government is committed to working with Cat Lake on its housing challenges.
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