Leaders in Attawapiskat have filed an injunction to stop the federal government’s decision to put third party management in charge of the community’s finances.
Chief Theresa Spence signed off on the injunction against the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development after a meeting with Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan Thursday morning in Thunder Bay.
“To stop the third party manager from taking over and causing more harm than good,” Spence said.
While both sides said the meeting was respectful, they couldn’t agree on the government’s decision to send in third-party manager Jacques Marion. Duncan said the decision to get a third-party manager is because of Spence’s declaration of emergency for the community in October, not because of finances.
“The third party manager is really there to deal with the immediacy of the situation,” Duncan told media Thursday morning.
The manager is there to oversee purchases like 22 modular homes and renovations to the 1,800 member community’s healing centre, which could act as a temporary housing over the winter months.
Some resident have been living in unheated shacks, trailers and tents while others are living in overcrowded substandard housing in need of repair.
“All of those things happen immediately,” Duncan said.
But Spence said the third-party manager, who was asked to leave the James Bay community, is not the one doing that work.
“It’s the people in my community who are working hard to get things moving,” she said. “He’s not even in our community so how can he manage the crisis. It’s the crisis team that’s managing everything right now, not the third party.”
Spence said Duncan continues to focus on the community’s finances, not the emergency.
“This is about an emergency crisis not financial I keep saying that and I even said that to the Minster let’s focus on emergency needs,” she said.
“It doesn’t make sense. If it was another country who would you send? You would send an emergency team you wouldn’t send a bank manager or financial person to say how much it’s going to cost,” Spence said.
