Carrol Johnston counted her blessings as she stood on the barren site where her home was destroyed by a fast-moving wildfire that forced her to flee her northern Alberta community two months ago.
The minister responsible for the Pacific Economic Development Agency of Canada has announced the government is giving nearly $6 million for Indigenous communities in British Columbia to develop clean energy projects.
The funding, earmarked in Budget 2022, promises $28 million over five years to train 1,000 new community-based firefighters. The pilot involves nine Indigenous organizations and communities.
Longtime grassroots staff, who serve First Nations students from the North because it is meaningful, are stretched thin from years of underfunding and under-resourcing.
Indigenous Services Canada says wildfires are threatening nine First Nations in Alberta, including the Little Red River Cree Nation, where more than 100 structures have been lost in the community of Fox Creek.
The report, titled A Labour of Love: The Unpaid and Exploited Labour of Grassroots and Community-Based Indigenous Youth Groups, calls out Ottawa for not valuing the work of young Indigenous organizers.
The federal Liberal government is committing $8.7 million to hold more consultations on Indigenous resource sharing in a budget that offers relatively little new spending on its reconciliation agenda.
A family member of residential school survivors says the minimum $55-million price tag for Pope’ visit to Canada last year feels like another slap in the face for Indigenous people.