While approximately 90 families remain homeless in Attawapiskat amidst the community’s hot button housing crisis, Chief Theresa Spence and Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan are still locking horns over Ottawa’s proposed third-party management of the community.
At the beginning of December the Conservative government decided to put Attawapiskat under third-party management at the tune of $1,300 a day at the community’s expense to examine the Band Council’s spending leading up to this most recent housing crisis. Spence, however, refused to cooperate with the appointed third-party manager who has since left the community at Spence’s request.
Since that time Spence and Duncan have met to discuss the crisis and the government has agreed to provide 22 modular homes for Attawapiskat residents as soon as the ice roads open in January or February.
At the same time, Duncan told CTV’s Question Period on Sunday, December 11, that Spence had indeed agreed to third-party management while the chief contends that the minister is in fact lying.
Spence later told CTV: “He’s a liar, because I didn’t say I agreed. Third party is not the answer here. We declared an emergency crisis, not a crisis on finances.”
The two parties have since agreed to meet again on December 16 to work on an agreement.
