The federal government does not have a willing partner to find a way to introduce fire codes on First Nation reserves, a newly released document shows.
The senior director for the Indigenous Fire Marshal Service, however, says there are steps Ottawa can take now to better protect communities.
For decades, house fires on First Nations have caused deaths and injuries at a much higher rate than off-reserve. Experts say that's due to of a range of factors, from insufficient housing and overcrowding to improper education and funding for fire prevention and suppression services. Woodhouse heads the fire safety file for the AFN, which is the advocate voice for more than 600 First Nations across the country. She did not respond to a request for comment and the assembly did not provide a comment on its position by deadline.
" Assembly of First Nations has previously not been supportive of legal or regulatory approaches to fire protection. To my knowledge, there are currently no partners willing to support co-developed approaches to fire enforcement," reads a set of prepared opening remarks for Hadju."I'll just put the question out there: Do we support it or not?"
"I can go to a dozen First Nations communities where there are fire trucks, you know, really good fire trucks that are sitting in buildings not being utilized," he said.MacKendrick said Hadju is open to all options, and is looking to hold a gathering to discuss fire safety in the coming weeks.
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