Leaders from the Village of Loon Lake, RM of Loon Lake and Makwa Sahgaiehcan First Nation have signed a new contract for fire services.

The agreement was arrived at in the wake of a house fire on the reserve that claimed the lives of two children last month.

The Loon Lake volunteer fire department did not respond to the emergency because the First Nation had not paid its bills for fire service.

"[The] First Nation will pay a retainer once a year and then pay a fee for every fire they have after that," said Laurie Lehoux, the Loon Lake Village and RM administrator.

The contract stipulates that the Makwa Sahgaiehcan First Nation will pay the Loon Lake volunteer fire department a $5000 retainer each year. In addition to that fee, the reserve will be billed for each individual fire that occurs.

According to Lehoux, this is the exact same agreement the two communities had in 2012, before the First Nation decided it didn't want to pay that retainer.

Despite this, Lehoux is confident the contractual agreement will serve its purpose, this time.

"I think it will work, we have some different contacts now," Lehoux explained. "I have Chief Ben's email directly, so if there's any problems or we are having problems with bills paid I will make him aware."

The village said it repeatedly tried to warn Makwa Sahgaiehcan that fire services were cut off in 2014.

Chief Richard Ben of the First Nation says he didn't know the reserve didn't have fire services.

What happened

In light of Ben's comments on the matter, the village provided the following documents to CBC News:

Letter from 2012 from the First Nation wishing to pay for Loon Lake fire services on a fee-for-service basis.

2013 contract between Loon Lake and Makwa Sahgaiehcan setting out payment terms for fire department to attend fires on the First Nation.

Letter from January 2015 with Loon Lake saying First Nation hasn't paid bills and fire services will be discontinued.

Unanswered questions

Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada (AANDC) said it gave the Makwa Sahgaiehcan First Nation $33,999 for the 2014-2015 fiscal year and that the community has a fire hall and truck.

Chief Ben said neither the fire truck nor the hall are in working order.

The Makwa Sahgaiehcan First Nation reported spending $62,352 on fire suppression in the 2013-2014 fiscal year.

CBC's questions about how this money has been used in the community have been referred to the First Nation's Finance Manager. Today, he declined to comment on the matter.