First Nations may face increased risk when restrictions ease

A top official with the federal government’s First Nations and Inuit Health Branch says Indigenous communities will face elevated risks of contracting COVID-19 when provinces and cities across Canada begin easing lockdown restrictions.

Currently, the COVID-19 infection rate for the Indigenous on-reserve population is running below the national average: 0.01 per cent to 0.9 per cent.

Across Canada, 76 COVID-19 cases have been reported on-reserve and 14 in the Inuit region of Nunavik.

But, Valerie Gideon, senior assistant deputy minister for the First Nations and Inuit Health Branch, tells CBC News’ Jorge Barrera that rate could rise once restrictions are eased.

“There will be an increased risk for Indigenous communities if larger urban centres start to reopen schools or reopen businesses,” Gideon says.

Her warning comes as provincial health officials in British Columbia said they would continue to only name regions where cases or clusters are COVID-19 are, and not disclose specific neighbourhoods and communities.

The policy, Indigenous leaders say, limits what First Nations communities can do to trace the illness and protect themselves from further outbreaks. 

Gideon, meanwhile, told Barrera that one of the reasons the Indigenous infection rate is so low is because First Nations across the country have implemented various levels of community lockdowns, including blocking access by outsiders, limiting outgoing trips to essential travel and requiring returning community members to self-isolate for 14 days upon their return. 

When restrictions ease, she says, First Nations communities will face some hard choices.

“Do they follow suit or do they remain more stringent with respect to physical distancing measures because they have higher factors of vulnerability?” she asks.

“There are communities that are 20 minutes from an urban centre. Some communities are in the middle of an urban centre. It is impossible for those communities to be completely closed off if cities decide to open up their operations.”

Fly-in and more remote First Nations populations face different variables and pressures when it comes to deciding when they should open up their territories, Gideon told Barrera.

“I think we will be involved in those discussions and I think those discussions will be dependent on each of the provinces,” said Gideon. 

“We will need to look at specific situations.”

Last weekend, the federal government pledged $306 million in funding to help small and medium-sized Indigenous businesses suffering the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In March, Prime Minister Trudeau pledged $305 million to help Indigenous communities deal with COVID-19.

However, specific details about how the money would be allocated were not released and this week some Indigeous leaders expressed unhappiness about the lack of funding to help people living off-reserve–about 900,000 people, about 60 per cent of the country’s Indigenous population.

With files from CBC News (Jorge Barrera, Jessica Deer, Angela Sterritt), RCI