Federal Northern Affairs Minister Dan Vandal says government assistance to Canadians as a whole as well as to northern and Indigenous communities will help them get through the COVID-19 pandemic but Northern Manitoba’s Member of Parliament says some of that assistance needs to be expanded and rolled out more quickly in light of the conditions on the ground in her riding.
Vandal, the Liberal MP for Winnipeg’s Saint Boniface-Saint Vital constituency, says pandemic precautions and the novel coronavirus itself can have a more pronounced effect in the north because of poorer infrastructure, even though northern regions have not yet seen a large number of positive tests for the virus.
"Things are more difficult in the north because of isolation … and things are simply more expensive in the north,” he told the Thompson Citizen April 6. “We know that the infrastructure generally is not as robust in the north as it is in the south, specifically health care infrastructure and health care capacity, so we’re putting a lot of accent on preventing the virus from getting established in the north. So far cases have been in minimal in Yukon and Northwest Territories and there are no cases in Nunavut as of yet. I’m knocking on wood here. We’re trying to encourage prevention and, if the virus does become more established in the north, we’re helping those territories and those Indigenous nations with health care capacity, with transportation and with temporary shelter if needed.”
Part of that help, as reported in the Globe & Mail, could come in the form of military deployment.
“If it’s necessary the military will become involved, will help local communities with dealing with the virus as well as temporary field hospitals if necessary,” said Vandal.
Churchill-Keewatinook Aksi NDP MP Niki Ashton, whose electoral district covers much of Manitoba’s geography from as far south as the southern tip of Lake Winnipeg to the Nunavut boundary in the north, says she has been advocating for military assistance for First Nations in general and three specific regions but would like to see assistance rolled out before confirmed cases start popping up in remote and under-equipped Indigenous communities.
“I was really pleased to see the federal government’s … recognition that First Nations require services provided by the military in the face of this pandemic,” she said April 6. “We should ramp up a response if there are confirmed cases but we should not wait for a confirmed case for there to be military action in terms of setting up a military hospital.”
Ashton says she has already submitted requests to the minister of defence on behalf of Cross Lake and Norway House, the Island Lake region and Berens River and surrounding communities.
She also hopes military assistance won’t be contingent on a request from Manitoba’s premier.
“We shouldn’t be waiting for the premier of any province, frankly, but especially here, given the vulnerability of communities. It should be based on the call being made by First Nations directly.”
The coronavirus crisis is not just a medical one, however. Physical distancing precautions and public health orders that have resulted in people staying home and non-critical businesses shutting down have created economic hardship for many Canadians, and the federal government has responded with wage subsidies for employers as well as the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB), with the online portal for applications launching April 6. Available to people 15 years of age or older who have lost at least 14 days of employment or self-employment over the initial four weeks of the pandemic and who earned at least $5,000 in 2019, the CERB will pay out $500 a week for up to 16 weeks to help replace lost income.
“We recognize the urgency of the situation and we’ve made this available to nearly six million Canadians who simply do not have enough hours of work to qualify for EI,” said Vandal. “The economy is really at a standstill because of the pandemic and so our government has come to the table with over $100 billion of programs to help Canadians to try to keep the economy going, to keep Canadians getting some income so they can buy groceries for their families and continue to live life as normal as they possibly could. We also have the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy thats being rolled out at the same time. We’ll compensate 75 per cent of an employee’s income [at qualifying businesses for up to 12 weeks dating back to March 15.] There’s a whole host of programs for Canadians and businesses.”
The federal government has also announced $300 million for First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples.
The economic supports are welcome, in Ashton’s view, but fail to provide for some vulnerable groups.
“Right now we know that the Canada Emergency Response Benefit does not apply to many people who do need help, including people who are on social assistance, students, people who are seniors or elders,” says the NDP MP. “This is not acceptable. We need to make sure that the most vulnerable population in our north are supported at this time. Let’s make sure that everybody, both people that were working and people that are not able to work or no longer work because they’re seniors, have the support necessary to stay home. We know that staying home is critical. We need to make sure that there are the supports, including the economic supports, in place for people to do so at this time and more work needs to be done by both our provincial and federal governments to allow people to stay home with some sort of financial stability.”
Striking a balance between the need to avoid introducing the coronavirus into remote communities and making sure they have the supplies and services they need is the key to an effective pandemic response, says the northern affairs minister.
“The people I’ve spoken to have been pretty united in the fact that they want less people coming to the north,” Vandal says. “At the same time, you need to maintain the supply chains for medicine and for food and for other essential items so you ned to strike that proper balance to get the supplies up to the north as well as … being mindful of the risks.”
Vandal says prevention is the best medicine, a mantra repeated daily by public health officials in Manitoba and everywhere else in Canada.
“Stay home unless you absolutely have to go somewhere,” says Vandal. “If you don’t absolutely have to go, if it’s not essential, stay home, practise self-distancing. Keep at least two metres away from another person as best you can. We know without a host the virus will die and so we need people to self-isolate and wash their hands more often than they usually do and prevent the spread of the virus. That’s the best thing any individual can do, north or south.”
He also recognizes that the peak of the pandemic has not arrived yet.
“I hate to say it, but things are probably going to get tougher before they get better but all governments will be there, certainly our government will be there to the end and we’ll get out of this and we’ll get out of it together,” said Vandal.
