BIG TROUT LAKE – Ontario’s premier was way off base in recent remarks about First Nations, Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug Chief Donny Morris said Thursday.
Premier Doug Ford told reporters Wednesday in Toronto that his government has been “bending over backwards to take care of” First Nations and treating them “like gold.”
First Nations “can’t just keep coming hat in hand all the time to the government,” Ford said, one day ahead of a planned meeting with leaders from the 39-member Anishinabek Nation.
In reality, Morris said, Ontario doesn’t do much for his First Nation, a Nishnawbe Aski Nation community.
Big Trout Lake, the KI First Nation’s reserve, is served by provincial police and Ontario’s transport ministry, “which runs a local gravel runway,” Morris said.
“And that’s the only thing they contribute to the community. So in reality, if he’s painting the picture of him giving us millions and millions for infrastructure and construction, we’re getting not a penny — nothing.”
Ford apologized later Thursday in a news conference.
“I get pretty passionate, and I just want to say I sincerely apologize for my words,” he said.
Ford’s remarks were “troubling” and “racist,” New Democrat MPP Sol Mamakwa, whose Kiiwetinoong riding includes KI First Nation, told reporters in a scrum earlier in Queen’s Park.
“The premier's office hasn’t reached out to my office to apologize or to speak about what was said yesterday,” Mamakwa told Newswatch before Ford’s news conference. “I haven’t heard anything.”
The Progressive Conservative premier said Wednesday he has told his Indigenous affairs minister to “give (First Nations) whatever they want for them to prosper. But there’s going to be a point where you can’t just keep coming hat in hand all the time to the government. You’ve got to be able to take care of yourselves.”
The Indigenous affairs minister is Kenora-Rainy River MPP Greg Rickford, whose riding borders Mamakwa’s to the south.
Ford was making the remarks in response to continuing opposition to his government’s Bill 5, the Protect Ontario by Unleashing our Economy Act, which became law on June 5.
First Nations across the province have called for the legislation’s immediate repeal.
A statement Thursday from Windigo First Nations Council said Ford has “an opportunity to reset your relationship with us by repealing the bill and negotiating a respectful way forward.”
Windigo serves seven First Nation communities in northern Ontario: Bearskin Lake, Cat Lake, North Caribou Lake, Sachigo Lake, Koocheching, Slate Falls and Whitewater.
