Native Leader Angry Over Government No-Show

Native Leader Angry Over Government No-Show

Tuesday, April 25, 2006 at 14:06

The chief of the Montreal Lake Cree Nation says he isn’t impressed by the government’s decision to schedule a training session for its fire crews this week.

Lionel Bird says his band invited personnel from the provincial government to attend his band’s Indigenous firefighters summit in Prince Albert this week, but organizers never received a firm answer and no one from the government has participated.

Bird notes one of the main issues that has been mentioned repeatedly at the conference is what he says is governments’ reluctance to hire First Nations firefighters to deal with the country’s blazes.

He says First Nations aren’t happy when government acts like it knows what’s best for them:

Bird also believes the government is hesitant to allow First Nations to carry out training and certification, because it doesn’t want them at the management level.

Officials with Saskatchewan Environment have not been immediately available for comment.