Tuesday's crash in North Spirit Lake, Ont., killed four people and injured one other, despite efforts by residents to put the fire out with snow or gouge a hole in the lake to try to pump water on the burning airplane.
"In the case of this accident, that just explains and describes what is a pretty atrocious emergency response system in those communities, where you're having to put a fire out when a plane crashes with snow balls," said Ontario New Democrat Gilles Bisson, who represents the area of James Bay.
"In places like Timmins or Sudbury or Toronto, we have emergency response equipment in our airports in order to be able to respond emergencies such as these, and we have people who are properly trained. None of that exists inside those communities."
Sgt. Jacquie George of the Nishnawbe-Aski Police Service said the force had an officer at the crash, but in these cases, it's always the community that is first on the scene. Like many small reserves,