The national chief of the Assembly of First Nations is calling for a full investigation into a house fire on a Saskatchewan First Nation that claimed the lives of two young children.
A two-year-old boy and an 18-month-old girl, Harley and Haley Cheenanow, died in the fire on the Makwa Sahgaiehcan reserve early Tuesday morning. The volunteer fire chief in the neighbouring village of Loon Lake told The Canadian Press Tuesday that volunteer firefighters didn’t respond to the fire because the First Nation’s firefighting contract had been cancelled.
Laurie Lehoux, the administrator of Loon Lake, told CTV Saskatoon on Wednesday that the fire department was owed around $3,300 for responding to some fires on the reserve last year. She said she sent the band’s accountant a letter in September, warning that fire services would be cut off if the outstanding bill was not paid.
“I asked him about it and his exact words to me were that we had never saved a building on the reserve so they didn’t think they needed to pay their bill,” she said.
However, Makwa Sahgaiehcan officials said they weren’t aware the community’s firefighting contract was no longer valid.
In a statement issued Wednesday, AFN National Chief Perry Bellegarde offered his condolences to the family of the two children and said there should be a “full investigation into this incident followed by action to ensure this doesn’t happen again.
“We can all agree that no community should be without proper fire protection and services,” he said.
Lehoux said she sent the reserve another letter in January stating that its fire services had been cut off. But Makwa Sahgaiehcan Chief Richard Ben said he wasn’t aware of that. He also said that his community has not been a priority for the volunteer fire department.
“It just makes us go back and rethink, why aren’t we put up in the same level as everybody else?” he said.
The federal government says it allotted $34,000 per year to Makwa Sahgaiehcan to operate and maintain a fire hall and fire truck on the reserve. But the fire hall was converted to a youth centre and the fire truck is only operational in the summer.
Ben said the money is not enough to train firefighters and operate the necessary services. He said most of the funds have been spent on fireproofing dilapidated homes.
A spokesperson for the Saskatchewan government told CTV News Wednesday that the province currently doesn’t have first responder legislation requiring a fire department to respond to any fire, no matter where it’s located.
The spokesperson said Emergency Management and Fire Services are working with the RCMP to determine the cause of the deadly fire.
Since the deadly fire, Loon Lake volunteer firefighters have been threatened on social media. Police have made one arrest in connection to a threat.
Makwa Sahgaiehcan First Nation is located approximately 310 kilometres northwest of Saskatoon.
With files from CTV’s Manitoba Bureau Chief Jill Macyshon, CTV Saskatoon and The Canadian Press
