Â鶹ӰÊÓ

OTTAWA - The housing crisis in Attawapiskat is glaring proof why Stephen Harper's winter summit with First Nations leaders can't just be about education, say chiefs meeting in the capital this week.

Both the prime minister and Shawn Atleo, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, have put reform to native education at the centre of discussions leading to a late-January meeting between the federal government and First Nations.

Harper has resisted calls to take a broad approach to First Nations concerns, preferring instead to avoid the possibility of biting off more than he can chew.

But education can't improve unless living conditions also improve, said Bill Montour, chief of the Six Nations reserve in southern Ontario.

"Harper's focus is on education. So is Shawn Atleo's. But it's a continuum," Montour said in an interview during a break in meetings on First Nations housing.

"Education is important but, when I look at our communities, I look at it as a circle continuum. If you don't have a safe, healthy house for children to learn, to study, to get decent meals and food, their health, their social, recreation," the implications are obvious, he said.

"It's all in that circle continuum. If you take one element out, that wheel doesn't turn any more. And that's where a lot of our communities in Canada are right now."

Jade Kataquapit, 12, knows this all too well. Her home in the northern Ontario community of Attawapiskat is a cramped room she shares with her mother, her brother and, occasionally, another sibling or two. The apartment is one of several dozen in a littered and stuffy construction trailer originally meant as a temporary shelter.

In recent interview, she said she would love to go to school every day, and she sees the value of getting a solid education.

"I don't want to end up like my brother," with no job and nothing to do all day, she said grimly, pointing down the narrow hallway of the trailer to Sandus Kataquapit, 21.

But the trailer is home to almost 100 people, many of them babies who cry at night, or youth who party into the wee hours, she said, sinking back down into a pile of blankets on her bed.

She is just too worn out to go to school, her mother Rollande Kataquapit explained.

"It's an emergency around here all the time."

Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan insisted Monday that his government has that emergency in hand. He said supplies for home renovations are on their way, and federal officials are trying to find medium-term shelter for those in homes not fit for winter.

"Our government is responding," Duncan said in the Commons.

He advised local band members to stop opposing and start co-operating with the third-party manager the government has named -- Jacques Marion from BDO Canada LLP -- to get a grip on the band council's finances.

"It is important to remember that the community's chief and council will continue to be in place," Duncan said in a statement. "We encourage all parties to work together to implement the First Nation's existing emergency management plan."

He's also requested a comprehensive audit by an independent auditor to identify how money has been spent and what oversight measures have been taken over the past five years.

"If there are problems identified, we will take immediate action to address them to ensure long-term solutions for the community," he said.

A spokeswoman for the minister said Duncan is trying to arrange a meeting with Attawapiskat's chief, Theresa Spence, this week while she is in Ottawa for the AFN meetings.

Local MP Charlie Angus of the New Democrats says the minister is talking about putting up people in the hockey arena -- no solution for a community that has been dealing with overcrowding and dilapidated housing for years.

Ironically, it was an earlier crisis in Attawapiskat that pushed education to the forefront of Ottawa's First Nations agenda, Angus said. The primary school was torn down because it was built on toxic land and making children sick. The reserve is still waiting for a permanent replacement.

"You're always going from crisis to crisis," Angus said in an interview. "We need to get some coherent plans into place."

The housing shortage in Attawapiskat is only the most recent example of poor conditions on reserve.

Overcrowding, mould and unsanitary conditions have become commonplace on reserves across the country over the last 20 years. The problems are likely to deteriorate further given the population explosion on many reserves, warned Montour.

There is a consensus among First Nations that education is a priority, and that improving the education of native children will improve their prospects, said Chief Gilbert Whiteduck of the Kitigan Zibi reserve in western Quebec.

But there also needs to be recognition that education is only one layer of a complex problem that cannot be dealt with in isolation, Whiteduck said.

He said numerous reports from First Nations researchers have shown that the shortfalls in native education and in housing have striking similarities: lack of funding and lack of local control and input are at the root of the problems.

"We've just got to move on all of them. I've been to communities where housing is poor, kids are sleeping on basement cement, there's poverty," Whiteduck said in an interview.

"You can become overwhelmed, but then you have to decide what are some of the things we are going to focus on and get going."