Aboriginals displaced by Manitoba floods still not home as housing bill tops $90 million

It's been almost three years since spring flooding in Manitoba inundated First Nations reserves but some 2,000 people are still living in temporary housing, and the cost to Ottawa has reached $90 million and counting.

The situation is frustrating Manitoba Emergency Measures Minister Steve Ashton, who told The Canadian Press that Ottawa could save money in the long run by doing more to protect reserves against flooding.

“First Nations are chronically underfunded when it comes to infrastructure,” Ashton said in an interview with CP. “If you are looking at a longer-term fix . . . you’re into the tens of millions of dollars. But the alternative is what we’ve seen where, year after year, those First Nations are impacted by flooding.”

Evacuees have been out of their homes since March 2011. Most are living in hotels and temporary housing scattered around the province at a cost to the federal government of $1.5 million a month for food and shelter, CP reported.

[ Related: Debts go unpaid as Manitoba flood evacuees from 2011 remain displaced ]

That money could have been better spent upgrading aboriginal communities so they don't get flooded in the first place, Ashton said.

“The federal government itself is 100-per-cent responsible because of its fiduciary relationship with First Nations,” he said. “It makes sense, most importantly for the human side, to make sure people don’t have to go through the trauma of flooding – but [it] also makes sense financially.”

One reserve, Lake St. Martin, has been declared uninhabitable and a search is underway to find a new home. The province has identified some land for a new reserve and is at work finalizing an agreement with Ottawa.

The reserve was inundated after Manitoba officials diverted water from the Assiniboine River to spare Winnipeg from flooding, the Globe and Mail reported last fall. Ironically, many residents have been living in Winnipeg hotel rooms ever since.

CP said it couldn't get an interview with federal Aboriginal Affairs Minister Bernard Valcourt but his office emailed a statement from him.

“The health and safety of First Nation communities is a priority for our government, including timely, effective and efficient support in times of emergency,” Valcourt said in the email.

“That is why we are taking action to ensure that all residents of First Nation communities receive emergency services comparable to those that protect every other Canadian. We will work with provinces and territories to support stronger and more resilient First Nation communities.”

[ Related: Floodwaters devastate First Nations communities in Alberta ]

But how do you define timely aid when people are still living in hotels almost three years after a disaster? It's unlikely a group of non-aboriginal Canadians would face the same delays in returning home.

In flood-ravaged southern Alberta, where a thousand members of the Siksika First Nation east of Calgary were forced from their homes in June, the province and the band have an $83-million agreement to rebuild housing an infrastructure, the Calgary Sun reported in November.

The deal between the Siksika and Alberta will not only restore the reserve but also add improvements – which the province won't fund – and provide job and skills-training opportunities for First Nation members in the rebuilding program, the Sun reported.