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Feds to stop financial aid to suspect flood evacuees

Lake St. Martin First Nation provided with list of ineligible people

By: Mia Rabson

Friday, Apr. 20, 2012 at 8:37 AM | Comments: 0

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS ARCHIVES The number of eligible flood evacuees from Lake St. Martin is in dispute.

OTTAWA -- The federal government is preparing to stop providing financial aid to Lake St. Martin First Nation evacuees it suspects were not living on the reserve when it was evacuated last year.

Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada (AANDC) officials met with Lake St. Martin Chief Adrian Sinclair in Winnipeg Wednesday to provide him with a list of people it thinks are ineligible for evacuation funding and expect him to respond by today with proof they are eligible.

Spokeswoman Ellen Funk said the department won't say how many people they believe are ineligible.

"We are waiting for the chief to verify before releasing numbers," said Funk.

If the names aren't verified, the ineligible people will be sent letters informing them they will no longer receive emergency benefits, including funding to stay in a hotel or with friends, and a daily living allowance, Funk said.

Then AANDC will decide how much money it will recoup from Lake St. Martin for costs incurred for those ineligible evacuees.

The federal government has spent more than $40 million housing evacuees from at least half a dozen flooded Manitoba First Nations since last spring. That includes more than $12 million for Lake St. Martin First Nation. In February, more than 2,000 reserve residents were still out of their homes.

In March, the Free Press learned the number of evacuees at Lake St. Martin was being questioned. It had risen to about 725 in August from fewer than 600 in June. In February it was up to 1,157 and in March it was up to 1,268.

Federal officials wrote to chiefs of evacuated reserves in December, saying the number of evacuees on the lists should have been dropping and raising concerns that it wasn't. It warned First Nations would be charged back for the costs of ineligible evacuees.

But it wasn't until the Free Press started asking questions in March that AANDC demanded the reserves verify their numbers.

Sinclair was supposed to provide Ottawa with a list of eligible names by April 5 but he didn't. He told the Free Press a few days after the deadline he had nothing to hide and was almost ready to respond. He could not be reached Thursday. His lawyer did not respond to a request for comment.

AANDC began its own review of the evacuee lists and Wednesday met with Sinclair to provide him with a list of people they did not believe were eligible. They could not be confirmed as residents of Lake St. Martin at the time of the spring 2011 floods.

How many people were living there when the flood hit depends on who you ask.

Sinclair told the Free Press in May 2011 it was around 500 people. A house-by-house count by the band's housing manager came up with a list of 767 people. However, AANDC regular monthly counts of on-reserve residents showed there were 1,325 people living in Lake St. Martin in March 2011.

Rarihokwats, a consultant for Lake St. Martin, said Thursday he didn't know whether Sinclair would respond to Ottawa's latest request. Sinclair has maintained the band was not responsible for verifying the eligibility of evacuees. Evacuees registered with the Manitoba Association of Native Fire Fighters, not with the band, and it was up to firefighters to ensure people were eligible.

"It is grossly unfair that Aboriginal Affairs would make demands on a chief to do something it does not demand of any other chief, no official of any municipality, to certify that someone is or is not an evacuee," said Rarihokwats. "That is up to the agency distributing the funds to do. The agency is not contracted by the First Nation and is not under the control of the First Nation. The people who hand out the money should make their own decisions and stand by them."

mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca

NOTE - This guy has only one name, Rarihokwats

By the numbers:

THE changing number of flood evacuees from Lake St. Martin First Nation:

May to early June 2011: 767

The number of Lake St. Martin residents filed with the Manitoba Association of Native Fire Fighters who were eligible for evacuation, according to the band's lawyer

June 14, 2011: 587

The number of evacuees reported in a provincial flood bulletin

August 2011: 725

The number of evacuees reported to the media

Feb. 9, 2012: 1,157

The number of evacuees listed with the federal government

March 12, 2012: 1,268

The latest total of evacuees registered with the Manitoba Association of Native Fire Fighters

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