Liberal MPs visiting the native reserves hard-hit by the H1N1 flu epidemic condemned the Harper government’s lack of action in helping the community prevent and cope with the outbreak.
“What we saw was so sad and an embarrassment to all the people of Canada,” said Liberal Health Critic Dr. Carolyn Bennett. “Over half of the residents in Garden Hill and eighty per cent of the people of Wasagamack are living without running water or sewers, many without adequate housing. These conditions make it almost impossible to control an outbreak of infection"
Dr. Bennett and Liberal Winnipeg MP Anita Neville visited Garden Hill First Nation, Wasagmack, and St. Theresa Point, 500 kilometers northwest of Winnipeg on Tuesday with Manitoba Liberal leader Dr. Jon Gerrard. The Island Lake community recently suffered its first death from H1N1 out of 76 current cases in the province.
“What we saw was outrageous and unacceptable,” said Ms. Neville. “The residents of Garden Hill have been abandoned by the Conservative government. Meanwhile, there are predictions that a second phase of the H1N1 flu outbreak is on its way in the fall – we can’t let our guard down for a moment.”
Liberal MP Dr. Kirsty Duncan was in Winnipeg at the same time to visit the Intensive Care doctors of the Health Sciences Centre, the National Microbiology Laboratory, and to attend part of a four-day training session to prepare First Nations bands for the next outbreak expected in the fall.
“At the hospital, I heard concerns about the lack of respiratory equipment. The hospital’s budget, like most hospitals in this country, is already squeezed to its limit. The government needs to provide them with more respirators in preparation for the fall.”
“The fact that chiefs from Manitoba are just getting pandemic management training this week shows you just how far behind the reserves are in coping with this outbreak,” said Dr. Duncan. “They’ve had absolutely no help from their federal government. They planned this training initiative on their own.”
The MPs visits coincided with a Senate standing committee meeting to examine the situation on the reserves. Senators heard how Health Canada officials had to withhold hand sanitizers from the affected reserves for weeks because of concerns that they contain alcohol.
“We learned that Northern Manitoba’s First Nations asked the federal government for pandemic help in late May, and discussed with the government their need for non-alcoholic hand sanitizers. After First Nations communities decided to purchase alternative non-alcoholic products on their own, the government, without consultation, sent alcoholic sanitizers to the reserves, only to have them locked away - a waste of money we can't afford when faced with a life-threatening flu".
“We were also told that Northern Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl promised the community last October that his department was working to complete the community water and sewer project, yet no one at Garden Hill has been contacted by his officials since,” added Ms. Neville. “Minister Strahl and the Conservative government must immediately act to get these communities what they need to stay well and access to care when they get sick.”
“Patients have waited up to 12 hours for a medivac to take them out to Winnipeg – far too long when we’re talking about life and death,” added Dr. Duncan.
http://www.liberal.ca/en/newsroom/media-releases/15967_native-communities-hit-by-h1n1-flu-feel-abandoned-by-the-harper-conservatives