OBT in comments asked what I thought of the situation in Attawapiskat and any comparisons with Nain, specifically transport./shipping.

Bit of a tall order if you ask me seeing that everything I know about Northern Ontario and first nations is garnered from media, left right and in between.

After a little research it appears that Nain is better off re air service and fares. Goose Bay to Nain is roughly 250 miles. Airfares are just over $800:00.

Timmins is about 300 miles from Attawapiskat, air fares are around$1,200:00 return.

What it costs to get to Timmins, and how I have no idea. I imagine they would be similar to fares to Goose Bay from the larger centers of the east.  

Getting heavy goods and freight seems some what similar; we have a summer marine shipping option while Attawapiskat seems to have a winter ice road for getting those items in.

I would think our season would be longer than theirs but can be corrected.

I would hope that their shipping is carried out more efficiently than ours, which is very probable as they would not have the Newfoundland government managing theirs.

Conditions both socially and culturally in the two towns are hard to compare. On the face of it we are better off, though we do have homes that could compare in the state of disrepair, not many but some.

We do have homes that have no hydro connection, how many is not known. These homes would be without water for sure in the winter months; also the community government has been disconnecting water from homes that owe back taxes.

To encapsulate the goings on, it would seem that the fine folks in Attawapiskat are being given the run over by the Feds because they choose not to take the assimilation path, or at least offer up some resistance.

All that empty rhetoric from the PM about Attawapiskat not being accountable and not keeping records of monies gone into the community holds no water. It seems all the records are easy to obtain on the internet if one wants to look, which is something the governments in Nunatsiavut can’t claim.

It is obvious that the civil service has not being doing their duty in keeping tabs on monies flowing in, the same thing happened when the Davis Inlet issue took center stage some years back. Lack of bureaucratic accountability was then as now the main culprit.

So the lesson is, be milquetoast and keep getting the little scrapes of what a modern white society has to offer,  or resist assimilation and keep getting the left over of any monies flowing and the worst living conditions in north America.

Interesting update:  No sooner had I posted this than news reports stated about the chief of the Attawapiskat nation asked the third party manager to leave the community.
No milquetoast that lady.

Now, once OBT washes the peanut butter off of his dog [don't ask] maybe he will fill me in on what he meant in his comment.

Shipping update: Astron in this morning, much frozen goods being moved to stores. Hayne's store already selling new supplies, I reserved 3 lamb legs.