Ontario chief coroner's probe into First Nations fire deaths will ask the 'right questions' deputy says

Ontario's deputy chief coroner says his office is reaching out to several Indigenous communities in the province who have been touched by tragedy due to fatal house fires.

James Sproule said hearing from people in affected First Nations is an important part of an ongoing review of 29 house fires in Ontario First Nations that killed a total of 56 people over a 10-year period.

The expert panel was first announced in February after officials began taking a closer look at two devastating fires: one in Pikangikum in March, 2016 where nine people died and another nine months later in Oneida that killed five. The probe is expected to seek representation from those and a number of other communities, including Mishkegoogaming, Deer Lake and Wunnumin Lake.

"We're actually now reaching out to the chiefs for those First Nations to ask them for representatives that they could delegate to be on our advisory group and we're waiting to get that information," Sproule said.

Hearing from elders and other community leaders will be an important addition to the "technical experts" who are also part of the investigation, Sproule said. Those include representatives from the coroner's office, forensic pathology services, the Fire Marshal's office, provincial police, First Nations firefighters and Nishnawbe Aski Nation, whose territory has seen a large number of the fatal fires.

The community input will be important "to make sure we're gathering information appropriately and asking the right questions, particularly as it pertains to their community," Sproule said.

"When we go back to the communities themselves ... what was the situation in those communities at the time of the fire, what were the resources, what was the housing like, what was the education like?"

Gathering further input on what specifics the panel should probe will also be done through the advisory group, he said.

The panel is being taked with four overarching goals:

• Identify community and systemic factors and gaps that contribute directly to fire deaths;
• Provide information to assist in developing policies and programs to mitigate those fires;
• Provide information to assist in developing policies and programs to enhance public safety;
• Come up with a way to better share information about any future fire deaths.

"There will, no doubt, be other fire deaths, unfortunately, we expect," Sproule said. "We want to be able to collect information in a comprehensive way on an ongoing basis so we can share that information."

Sproule said he expects the investigation to be completed in 2019; the report's findings will be first released to the affected communities, he added, before likely being shared with federal and provincial governments and the public.