The Alberta community of fewer than 2,000 members has seen 16 deaths since April. Leaders say they are struggling to fund funerals and that life expectancy has dropped dramatically
“These are my people, most of them young who will never have the opportunity to live their lives,” Mr. Dixon wrote in a letter to Indigenous Services Canada on July 21. The average age of the deceased was 44 years old. Many are survived by young children, he said.
Local media outlet CochraneNow and CBC News first reported the story, and Bearspaw First Nation shared a copy of the letter with The Globe and Mail.Between 2015 and 2021, life expectancy dropped seven years for First Nations people in Alberta, going from 73 to 66 for women and from 67 to 60 for men, the Chief wrote in his letter. He appeared to be referencing aciting data from Alberta Health Services, which The Globe could not independently verify.
Chief Dixon said the current governance structure of his community, amalgamated with Wesley First Nation and Chiniki First Nation under the Stoney Tribal Administration, “handicaps us from addressing the underlying causes such as drug addiction and poverty in a proper and co-ordinated fashion.” Ms. Gratton said Bearspaw First Nation was successful in its request for proposals in support of a mental-wellness crisis response team for 2022 through 2024, which would provide “a vital resource to help the community deal with the ongoing crisis.”
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