Ottawa, Ontario spar over funding for First Nations elders home
CBC
A jurisdictional battle between Ottawa and Ontario over funding for a new elders home in a northern First Nation could leave dozens of residential school survivors separated from their families and community a second time, says the First Nation's chief.
The long-term care licence for the facility at Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory, about 550 km northwest of Toronto on Manitoulin Island, expires next year.
The care home was built in 1972 and has reached the end of its lifespan. Chief Tim Ominika said it's too small to meet the demand for spaces, has no room for cultural events and needs costly repairs.
Ominika said that unless the First Nation can secure funding for a planned new building, it will be forced to relocate 50 Anishinaabe elders — most of them survivors of residential schools — to other nursing homes scattered across the province.
The community's former chief, Rachel Manitowabi, said some of the elders have Alzheimer's or dementia and find it hard to speak the English language.
"It's going to be retraumatizing," Ominika told CBC News. "Not only [for] them, who are residing within the long-term care facility, but also the community as a whole."
Wiikwemkoong is $20 million short of the $60 million it needs to build a new nursing home.
Ontario committed $30 million toward the project. The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation contributed $7.5 million and the community collected more than $2 million through fundraising efforts.
While long-term care is a provincial responsibility, Ominika said the federal government should come through with the remaining $20 million because Ottawa has funded similar projects outside its jurisdiction in other communities.
The federal government recently announced $1.2 billion for a new hospital in Moosonee, Ont., $30 million for a new elder care home in Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory and $194 million for a 24-bed seniors long-term care facility in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut.
Indigenous Services Minister Patty Hajdu said the government of Ontario should contribute more to the project.
"Repeatedly, what we see from Ontario is a pattern of discrimination for First Nations," Hajdu said.
"[Ontario has] a jurisdictional role and responsibility to support aging. We're there as a partner, but we do need the Ontario government to step up."
Ontario is defending its commitment. The provincial government said it has earmarked 30 years of operational funding, construction funding subsidies and development funding for the new facility.
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