The NDP’s Indigenous Affairs Critic, Member of Parliament for Winnipeg Centre Leah Gazan, has called out Federal Indigenous Services Minister Mandy Gull-Masty for what she says in an insulting lack of action in responding to last year’s widespread wildfire evacuations of the Pimicikamak Cree Nation in Manitoba.
Gazan says on July 24th last year, after thousands of wildfire evacuees had taken refuge in Winnipeg, she had sent a letter to Minister Gull-Masty with an urgent request for action to uphold the safety and dignity of those displaced.
Minister Gull-Masty’s response came nearly a year later, on May 27th of this year, with no mention of Pimicikamak by name or any reference to any specific action taken to address the needs of evacuees in Winnipeg, but she had defended the way the government responded.
The Minister pointed out that multiple agencies, including the Armed Forces, work closely with First Nations governments to determine what support evacuees need and how to connect them with it, but she adds, post-emergency debriefs take place to find out how to improve that response.
Minister Gull-Masty acknowledged that last year’s wildfire season was among the worst Canada has ever seen and was especially hard on First Nations communities, with 50,000 people across 60 First Nations communities evacuated. She pointed to $182 million in funding for air purifiers, scrubbers and generators to combat wildfire smoke which allowed some residents to avoid evacuations and $55 million in additional funds to support First Nations with emergency preparation as ways her government is responding to wildfire threats.
For MP Gazan however, that doesn’t go far enough, as she says there are still displaced evacuees living in Winnipeg without adequate supports, among them, many Indigenous women and girls who she noted were much more profoundly impacted and are now left vulnerable in a city they’re not familiar with.
Gazan is now pleading with the Federal government to take the matter of widespread evacuations brought on by climate emergencies seriously, as the country braces for another wildfire season.
