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No way to enforce fire codes on First Nations, and new law would be costly: document

Published

2 years ago

October 5, 2022

OTTAWA — There is no way to enforce building or fire codes on First Nations and pursuing a legislative fix would require significant time and money, federal officials warn in an internal briefing document.

But Blaine Wiggins, the senior director of the Indigenous Fire Marshals Service, said that enforcement gap has “catastrophic” consequences.

House fires have long posed a major safety risk to those living on reserve, with several children dying in blazes that broke out in communities earlier this year in southern Alberta and northern Ontario.

Indigenous leaders and experts tie the high number of deadly house fires on reserves to a lack of proper housing and overcrowding, as well as insufficient funding and education around fire protection.

Both the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs and Aboriginal Firefighters Association of Canada have called on Ottawa to pass legislation to apply building and fire codes to First Nations communities, and mandate inspections.

But a briefing document prepared for the deputy minister of Indigenous Services Canada says there is currently no way to enforce provincial or national building or fire codes for buildings on reserves.

The document, which was obtained by The Canadian Press through an access-to-information request, says the department can make sure the infrastructure it funds adheres to such codes but the only other enforcement option for individual First Nations is by passing “ad hoc bylaws.”

“While there is a long-standing recognition of the need to address compliance with respect to building and fire codes for other infrastructure and housing, there is not broad support for an approach for enforcing on-reserve building and fire code,” officials said.

Provincial fire services can condemn a building off-reserve if they feel it puts the lives of people inside in danger but that is more complex for on-reserve structures, the document said.

“As most fire deaths occur in residential buildings, enacting a similar approach to on-reserve communities would mean that First Nations individuals could be restricted from accessing their own property on First Nation land,” officials said in the briefing note.

“Such an approach requires careful consideration and would require significant consultation.”

Wiggins says whether it’s new legislation or a bylaw a First Nation has enacted, the government must provide the necessary funding and resources to ensure these standards can be met.

“There’s concern within the First Nations leadership, just like with other legislation, once legislation is put in place the federal government hasn’t funded it properly, so hence it’s failed,” he said.

The briefing document appears to show federal bureaucrats feel the same. Fire protection, the officials said, isn’t legislated as an essential service, and efforts underway to designate First Nations policing as essential have a high cost.

“A legislative approach to fire protection would likely follow a similar path requiring early and significant commitments to funding and program,” the document reads.

A spokesperson for Indigenous Services Minister Patty Hajdu said in a statement that the government is not planning to legislate fire protection after consulting First Nations partners and communities.

“It was determined that legislation would not be the best approach at this time. Rather, the focus should remain on identifying and understanding the gaps that currently exist and working to close them together,” the statement read.

“Should legislation be identified as a priority by Indigenous leadership at a future point, the federal government will be receptive to this advice and is open to working collaboratively.”

The Department of Indigenous Services is currently working with the Assembly of First Nations to roll out a new fire protection strategy to improve the use of fire codes.

In 2021, the Ontario chief coroner said in a report on fire deaths on First Nations that there is “jurisdictional neglect.”

That review, which followed several fatal fires on Ontario reserves, said because First Nations lands are regulated by the federal Indian Act, provincial buildings codes generally don’t apply and First Nations often end up falling through the cracks.

“Disputes between federal and provincial governments over their respective jurisdictions has contributed to chronic underfunding and fragmented and inadequate services being delivered to Indigenous communities,” the review concluded.

It also said most fatal fires on First Nations happened in a home missing a smoke alarm, or had one that didn’t work.

That’s one area where Wiggins believes Ottawa must take action.

“Every jurisdiction is legally required to have a smoke alarm at home … except First Nations,” he said. “First Nations are not required by any legislation to have that simple tool.

“We’ve asked the federal government, just pass the legislation that says you have to working smoke alarms in a home … nothing anything more complicated than that and then give us the mandate to help every community meet that.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 5, 2022.

Stephanie Taylor, The Canadian Press

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Two youths arrested after emergency alert issued in New Brunswick

Published

8 hours ago

September 17, 2024

Anne Joseph

MONCTON, N.B. – New Brunswick RCMP say two youths have been arrested after an emergency alert was issued Monday evening about someone carrying a gun in the province’s southeast.

Caledonia Region Mounties say they were first called out to Main Street in the community of Salisbury around 7 p.m. on reports of a shooting.

A 48-year-old man was found at the scene suffering from gunshot wounds and he was rushed to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Police say in the interest of public safety, they issued an Alert Ready message at 8:15 p.m. for someone driving a silver Ford F-150 pickup truck and reportedly carrying a firearm with dangerous intent in the Salisbury and Moncton area.

Two youths were arrested without incident later in the evening in Salisbury, and the alert was cancelled just after midnight Tuesday.

Police are still looking for the silver pickup truck, covered in mud, with possible Nova Scotia licence plate HDC 958. They now confirm the truck was stolen from Central Blissville.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.

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World Junior Girls Golf Championship coming to Toronto-area golf course

Published

9 hours ago

September 16, 2024

Anne Joseph

MISSISSAUGA, Ont. – Golf Canada has set an impressive stretch goal of having 30 professional golfers at the highest levels of the sport by 2032.

The World Junior Girls Golf Championship is a huge part of that target.

Credit Valley Golf and Country Club will host the international tournament from Sept. 30 to Oct. 5, with 24 teams representing 23 nations — Canada gets two squads — competing. Lindsay McGrath, a 17-year-old golfer from Oakville, Ont., said she’s excited to be representing Canada and continue to develop her game.

“I’m really grateful to be here,” said McGrath on Monday after a news conference in Credit Valley’s clubhouse in Mississauga, Ont. “It’s just such an awesome feeling being here and representing our country, wearing all the logos and being on Team Canada.

“I’ve always wanted to play in this tournament, so it’s really special to me.”

McGrath will be joined by Nobelle Park of Oakville, Ont., and Eileen Park of Red Deer, Alta., on Team Canada 2. All three earned their places through a qualifying tournament last month.

“I love my teammates so much,” said McGrath. “I know Nobelle and Eileen very well. I’m just so excited to be with them. We have such a great relationship.”

Shauna Liu of Maple, Ont., Calgary’s Aphrodite Deng and Clairey Lin make up Team Canada 2. Liu earned her exemption following her win at the 2024 Canadian Junior Girls Championship while Deng earned her exemption as being the low eligible Canadian on the world amateur golf ranking as of Aug. 7.

Deng was No. 175 at the time, she has since improved to No. 171 and is Canada’s lowest-ranked player.

“I think it’s a really great opportunity,” said Liu. “We don’t really get that many opportunities to play with people from across the world, so it’s really great to meet new people and play with them.

“It’s great to see maybe how they play and take parts from their game that we might also implement our own games.”

Golf Canada founded the World Junior Girls Golf Championship in 2014 to fill a void in women’s international competition and help grow its own homegrown talent. The hosts won for the first time last year when Vancouver’s Anna Huang, Toronto’s Vanessa Borovilos and Vancouver’s Vanessa Zhang won team gold and Huang earned individual silver.

Medallists who have gone on to win on the LPGA Tour include Brooke Henderson of Smiths Falls, Ont., who was fourth in the individual competition at the inaugural tournament. She was on Canada’s bronze-medal team in 2014 with Selena Costabile of Thornhill, Ont., and Calgary’s Jaclyn Lee.

Other notable competitors who went on to become LPGA Tour winners include Angel Yin and Megan Khang of the United States, as well as Yuka Saso of the Philippines, Sweden’s Linn Grant and Atthaya Thitikul of Thailand.

“It’s not if, it’s when they’re going to be on the LPGA Tour,” said Garrett Ball, Golf Canada’s chief operating officer, of how Canada’s golfers in the World Junior Girls Championship can be part of the organization’s goal to have 30 pros in the LPGA and PGA Tours by 2032.

“Events like this, like the She Plays Golf festival that we launched two years ago, and then the CPKC Women’s Open exemptions that we utilize to bring in our national team athletes and get the experience has been important in that pathway.”

The individual winner of the World Junior Girls Golf Championship will earn a berth in next year’s CPKC Women’s Open at nearby Mississaugua Golf and Country Club.

Both clubs, as well as former RBC Canadian Open host site Glen Abbey Golf Club, were devastated by heavy rains through June and July as the Greater Toronto Area had its wettest summer in recorded history.

Jason Hanna, the chief operating officer of Credit Valley Golf and Country Club, said that he has seen the Credit River flood so badly that it affected the course’s playability a handful of times over his nearly two decades with the club.

Staff and members alike came together to clean up the course after the flooding was over, with hundreds of people coming together to make the club playable again.

“You had to show up, bring your own rake, bring your own shovel, bring your own gloves, and then we’d take them down to the golf course, assign them to areas where they would work, and then we would do a big barbecue down at the halfway house,” said Hanna. “We got guys, like, 80 years old, putting in eight-hour days down there, working away.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.

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Purple place: Mets unveil the new Grimace seat at Citi Field

Published

9 hours ago

September 16, 2024

Anne Joseph

NEW YORK (AP) — Fenway Park has the Ted Williams seat. And now Citi Field has the Grimace seat.

The kid-friendly McDonald’s character made another appearance at the ballpark Monday, when the New York Mets unveiled a commemorative purple seat in section 302 to honor “his special connection to Mets fans.”

Wearing his pear-shaped purple costume and a baseball glove on backwards, Grimace threw out a funny-looking first pitch — as best he could with those furry fingers and short arms — before New York beat the Miami Marlins at Citi Field on June 12.

That victory began a seven-game winning streak, and Grimace the Mets’ good-luck charm soon went viral, taking on a life of its own online.

New York is 53-31 since June 12, the best record in the majors during that span. The Mets were tied with rival Atlanta for the last National League playoff spot as they opened their final homestand of the season Monday night against Washington.

The new Grimace seat in the second deck in right field — located in row 6, seat 12 to signify 6/12 on the calendar — was brought into the Shannon Forde press conference room Monday afternoon. The character posed next to the chair and with fans who strolled into the room.

The seat is available for purchase for each of the Mets’ remaining home games.

“It’s been great to see how our fanbase created the Grimace phenomenon following his first pitch in June and in the months since,” Mets senior vice president of partnerships Brenden Mallette said in a news release. “As we explored how to further capture the magic of this moment and celebrate our new celebrity fan, installing a commemorative seat ahead of fan appreciation weekend felt like the perfect way to give something back to the fans in a fun and unique way.”

Up in Boston, the famous Ted Williams seat is painted bright red among rows of green chairs deep in the right-field stands at Fenway Park to mark where a reported 502-foot homer hit by the Hall of Fame slugger landed in June 1946.

So, does this catapult Grimace into Splendid Splinter territory?

“I don’t know if we put him on the same level,” Mets executive vice president and chief marketing officer Andy Goldberg said with a grin.

“It’s just been a fun year, and at the same time, we’ve been playing great ball. Ever since the end of May, we have been crushing it,” he explained. “So I think that added to the mystique.”

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