Feds poised to call in army to help Indigenous communities fight COVID-19 – National Observer

April 2nd 2020

Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller says the federal government is ready to call in the army to help First Nations, Inuit or Metis communities contend with COVID-19.

Indigenous leaders from across Canada have been raising alarms about COVID-19, worried that supports promised by the federal government to help First Nations, Inuit and Metis might not do enough to prevent the most vulnerable people from falling through the cracks.

Miller believes it’s now just a question of when, not if, an outbreak will happen in the first remote Indigenous community and officials are bracing for it.

“Even for Canada, which has one of the best health-care systems in the world, it can get very overwhelmed very quickly and we’re very much at the beginning of this and we still have yet to see the worst,” Miller said in an interview.

Many social determinants of health make Indigenous populations more vulnerable than others in the face of a viral disease, including overcrowded housing, remoteness, unclean water and inadequate food supplies.

Read More: https://www.nationalobserver.com/2020/04/02/news/feds-poised-call-army-help-indigenous-communities-fight-covid-19