Calls grow for Ottawa to 'step up' with military help for First Nation plagued by COVID-19 in Ontario
CBC
It's been three days since Bearskin Lake First Nation publicly asked the federal government for assistance from the Canadian military.
And still no response.
Nearly half of the roughly 400 people living in the remote First Nation 600 kilometres north of Thunder Bay, Ont., have tested positive for COVID-19. Even more are in quarantine.
It's left the community with a dwindling number of people to perform essential tasks like delivering wood, food and medicine to those in isolation.
"We need external personnel to come in and help us. We need human resources," said Charles Fox, a member of Bearskin Lake and a former Ontario regional chief.
The people who are able to work are "running on fumes," Fox said. "How much longer can they continue? I don't know."
Despite the increasingly dire situation in Bearskin Lake, the First Nation is still waiting for a response from Ottawa as to whether the military will be deployed.
In an emailed statement on Wednesday, a spokesperson with the Department of National Defence said it hasn't received a formal request for assistance.
The spokesperson said that request would have to be co-ordinated by Public Safety Canada, which has not responded to any requests for comment by CBC News.
"They're just playing the game," Fox said, adding the federal government is well aware of the challenges facing the First Nation.
"If the city of Toronto gets snowed under, [the army] will go in the following day. But we're a First Nation. We're far removed — out of sight, out of mind."
But there is growing pressure on the federal government to respond to Bearskin Lake's request for assistance.
After speaking with leaders in Bearskin Lake, Charlie Angus said it should not be so difficult for a remote community in crisis to get help from the military.
"We can't get supplies into homes to heat them, to get food to elders, because so many people are in quarantine or sick," said the NDP member of Parliament for Timmins—James Bay.
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