Saskatchewan’s child advocate is calling on Aboriginal and government leaders to work together to improve fire safety on reserves.
Bob Pringle says the deaths of two young children in a house fire earlier this week has added to his stress on the long-standing issue.
He says children have a right to be safe in their homes and adults need to stop finger-pointing about who’s responsible for fire protection.
A two-year-old boy and his 18-month-old sister were killed Tuesday in a fire on the Makwa Sahgaiehcan reserve.
The First Nation had a working fire truck, but no proper equipment or a trained crew to use it.
Makwa Sahgaiehcan Chief Richard Ben says the deaths on Tuesday were a wake-up call for the community.
The band had hired the volunteer fire department in a neighbouring village, but was cut off after it stopped paying its firefighting bills.
Ben says he plans to pay the outstanding bills and, further down the line, put together the reserve’s own fire department.
Meanwhile, The RCMP have identified who they arrested after threats were allegedly made on Facebook to the volunteer fire chief whose crew did not respond to the reserve fire.
Twenty-seven-year-old Tony Mitsuing was arrested and released Wednesday morning.
Mitsuing is facing a charge of uttering threats and is to appear in court next month.
Larry Heon, the mayor and volunteer fire chief of nearby Loon Lake, had confirmed he got a call about the fire but his crew didn’t attend.
The Village of Loon Lake has released a letter showing it had cut off firefighting service to the neighbouring reserve three weeks ago.
Laurie Lehoux, administrator of Loon Lake, says the Makwa Sahgaiehcan First Nation hadn’t paid its bills since last spring and owed about $3,300.
She says members of the village council’s fire board decided in November that it would not respond to any more fires on the reserve, and sent a letter and email notifying them of that in January.
Both the band’s chief and finance director have said they were not aware that fire services with the village had been cancelled.
Talk of the fatal fire made its way to Parliament as it was brought up in the House of Commons on Wednesday.
Manitoba N-D-P M-P Nikki Ashton asked Aboriginal Affairs Minister Bernard Valcourt why no firefighters or trucks answered the fire call on Tuesday morning.
Valcourt accused Ashton of using the deaths to try to score political points.
He said Ottawa provides First Nations money to have firefighting in their communities and added that the federal government will continue to work with First Nations to prevent further deaths.
The federal government says the reserve received $40,000 for fire services for the 2014-2015 fiscal year.
(with files from The Canadian Press)