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The federal government has sent nearly a million dollars in emergency funding to a northern Ontario reserve it is auditing amid questions over the use of taxpayer dollars, even as the community’s only school remains shuttered.

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The Gull Bay First Nations school, which runs from Kindergarten to Grade 8, closed its doors around the same time the former chief is said to have thrown, apparently in his capacity as chief, two Christmas parties and a New Year’s Eve fete that included dinner and live music, one attendee told the National Post.

New chief Wilfred King, who was narrowly elected on Jan. 13 after being voted out in 2010, claims the previous council mismanaged the band’s finances and said he is working to clean up the books, re-open the school and re-staff the health clinic.

Regardless of how the community arrived at this dire situation, band members are today facing frozen pipes and no running water, crowded housing with little or no heat, missing band-owned equipment, and only interim staff hired to key posts.