First Nation demands resignation of Ontario’s top Indigenous Services Canada bureaucrat

The chief and council of the First Nation with the most enduring boil water advisory in the country is calling for the immediate resignation of Indigenous Services Canada’s top Ontario bureaucrat, citing an irrevocable loss of trust. 

In an email sent Monday morning to the senior assistant deputy minister Lynda Clairmont, Neskantaga First Nation Chief Chris Moonias accused Ontario regional director general Anne Scotton of conducting her work counter to the basic principles of reconciliation. 

“Instead of working to renew any sort of respectful relationship with Indigenous people, Ms. Scotton has demonstrated paternalism in her work, mirroring colonialist values rather than reconciliation, and her involvement is causing continued harm to our people,” wrote Moonias in an email obtained by CBC News.

“With the impact of Ms. Scotton’s behaviour building, it is with extreme prudence that we write to you today to demand the immediate resignation of Regional Director General Anne Scotton.

The call for Scotton’s removal comes four days after Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller overruled her framing of an investigation into the 25-year-long water crisis in Neskantaga, a fly-in community about 450 km north of Thunder Bay, Ont.

Authority lies with deputy minister, minister’s office says

At the chief’s request, the department announced a third-party investigation two weeks ago into the business practices of consultants and engineering companies hired to end Neskantaga’s boil water advisory, which could extend to other communities.

Scotton emailed Moonias the draft terms of reference for the probe on Thursday afternoon with a line in the attached document for the chief’s signature. She also informed the chief that the consultant firm MNP had been selected as the third party investigator — the same company that used to be Neskantaga’s third-party manager. 

Scotton’s message contradicted a commitment Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller made to Moonias to co-develop the terms of the investigation with the chief and council. 

“After our most recent experience with Ms. Scotton, our tolerance for her behaviour and disrespect for our Nation has run its course,” Moonias wrote in an email to Clairmont

“She dismissed the community’s right to participate and took full control of the process. She unilaterally determined it best to hire an investigator who was not impartial. An investigator with a well-known, long-term and problematic relationship with the community.”

CBC News has reached out to Scotton for comment but has not heard back.

In an email statement, Miller’s office wrote the department’s priority is the health and well-being of Neskantaga’s members.

“The independence of the public services is essential to ensuring an ethical and well-functioning government,” a spokesperson wrote.

.

“