WINNIPEG - Manitoba's First Nations are being left out of the federal government's swine flu preparations even though their communities have been hardest hit by the virus, the province's chiefs said Tuesday.
Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq stopped in Winnipeg to tout $135 million in funding already announced to renovate and build new health clinics in First Nations communities, but aboriginal leaders said that will do little to help them stave off an expected resurgence of the virus.
Grand Chief Ron Evans said they have no assurances that aboriginals will be among the first to get vaccinated against the virus this fall. He said he wasn't even invited to a meeting of health officials on H1N1 in Winnipeg this week.
A new nursing station by 2011 is welcome but does little to assuage the fears of people now, he said.
"We need information," he said. "The people are very concerned. They need to be ready. They need to know what's going to happen to them when the pandemic hits ... It's the most pressing concern we have as First Nations people."
Manitoba's northern native communities were particularly hard-hit by the flu last spring. Many patients were airlifted from a cluster of northern reserves where there are fewer than 10,000 residents. Aboriginal chiefs have resorted to soliciting donations from corporations for everything from hand sanitizers and Tylenol to antivirals and ventilators.
Aglukkaq defended the government's plan. She said First Nations communities are well-prepared for a resurgence of the flu, and the construction and renovation of nursing stations across the country is underway.
Isolated communities will also get priority for the vaccine once it is available in November, added Aglukkaq, who stopped short of singling out aboriginal people.
"In isolated communities, H1N1 spreads faster, so First Nation communities like any other community in this country will receive vaccines," she said.
"There are a lot of high-risk pregnancies in our communities, chronic illnesses and so on. Those will be part of the sequencing of the distribution for the fall."
However, it's up to individual aboriginal communities to update their pandemic plans.
"We don't have a lot of time," Aglukkaq said. "Fall is coming. We need to make sure every community understands their plan and has a plan in place."
Chief Norman Bone of the Keeseekoowenin Ojibwa First Nation said he has put together a planning group but all its members have day jobs. With no extra federal funding, it's been difficult to even arrange meetings, he said.
Everyone is afraid, he said.
"Hopefully the worst doesn't come to us. But when people get sick with H1N1, if you don't get the proper services immediately or as soon as possible, then you may not survive it."
Marcel Balfour, chief of the remote Norway House First Nation, said he has dedicated a large part of his office staff to pull together a pandemic plan. For one of the largest First Nations communities in Manitoba, it's a huge task without federal support, he said.
The federal government seems afraid to single out aboriginal people as a priority for politically correct reasons, he said.
"They're afraid to do a race-based approach on this," Balfour said, referring to priority for the vaccine. "To actually identify First Nations as a priority is a problem. It doesn't make any sense to me."
NDP health critic Judy Wasylycia-Leis said the Conservatives just reannounced old money from the spring budget while leaving First Nations unprepared for the return of swine flu.
"It's almost as if the pandemic doesn't exist in the minds of the government," she said. "It's almost as if they are ignoring completely the concerns of First Nations communities."
