For nine months and counting, families in Fort Albany have been torn apart by a pandemic caused by drugs and alcohol.
Lives have been lost, and children and elders have been left on their own as a result of an addictions emergency that Fort Albany’s Chief confirmed has been ongoing since the First Nation’s Council declared one in May 2019. My office has reached out repeatedly to the Ford government’s Minister of Indigenous Affairs, only to receive the same shameful answer: that helping Fort Albany to manage its addictions crisis is the responsibility of the federal government. Why won’t this government stand up for the people of Fort Albany and First Nations, and provide the long-overdue support that is so desperately needed?