More than four weeks after Neskantaga First Nations declared a state of emergency (SOE) over a sewage spill at its nursing station, a fire at its temporary health-care facility has left the community scrambling again.
The sewage spill in the remote Ojibway community, about 440 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay, Ont., happened five days after more than 140 community members had returned home from Toronto following an evacuation triggered by nearby wildfires.
Fewer than 400 people live in the First Nation, with about 250 of the community’s most vulnerable now staying in Toronto because of the sewage spill.
Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) officials, including the department’s Ontario regional director general, visited the First Nation on Thursday to assess the situation.
In a statement on Friday, Neskantaga Chief Gary Quisses said he and the ISC officials saw “all the ways the past remediation work done on the nursing station was not done up to code.” That included a 15-cm (six-inch) open gap left in the exterior wall leading into the crawlspace, and black mould that was caused by raw sewage flooding and was spreading in the basement.
Indigenous Services Minister Mandy-Gull Masty has been in contact with Quisses about his concerns, according to an ISC spokesperson.
“ISC is working closely with the Nation to identify and implement additional interim health service solutions while the assessment of the main facility is underway,” Maryéva Métellus said in an email to CBC News on Tuesday.
Discussions “have focused on ensuring support is tailored to the community’s evolving needs.”
“In addition to available funding, ISC is prepared to provide practical assistance across a range of areas, from planning and co-ordination to on-the-ground support,” Métellus added. “Conversations with the Nation are ongoing, and ISC is committed to taking timely action to help address urgent needs as they are identified.”
Neskantaga’s Child and Family Resources Centre has been used as a temporary nursing station since the sewage spill. Shortly after ISC’s visit, Quisses said, a space heater caused a small fire in the facility.
While the building is still being used, Quisses said it’s not rated for medical equipment. The First Nation is weighing its options for another temporary health clinic, which may mean either using its administrative office, connecting services to a few modular buildings in the community or repurposing trailers at the school.
“What I want my community to have is a functional clinic in the community that will accommodate us so we could repatriate our membership,” Quisses told CBC News on Tuesday.
This isn’t the first time the nursing station has prompted an evacuation; last year, the community’s most vulnerable were evacuated for three months over a flood and smell of fuel at the facility, which was built in 1994.
At the same time, Neskantaga remains under Canada’s longest-ever boil-water advisory, which has been in place for 31 years.
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While there’s no timeline for the permanent nursing station to reopen, Quisses said he continues to advocate for a new facility to be built.
“We don’t want a feasibility study. We want one step up ahead, the pre-design stage, so that’s what we’re asking for,” he said. “It will take a few years, I guess, if we’re going to get approved for a new clinic.”
When asked about the community’s desires for a new nursing station, Métellus said “we continue to work with the Nation on both its immediate response needs and discuss its longer-term health infrastructure priorities, including the Nation’s request for a new health facility.
“Discussions remain ongoing at this time.”
Neskantaga is part of the Matawa First Nations Management tribal council, which represents eight First Nations in Treaty 9 and one in the Robinson-Superior area.
Matawa issued a statement last week, calling Neskantaga’s SOE “the result of failure of the Crowns of Canada and Ontario.”
“The unequal terms of James Bay Treaty No. 9 (1905-06 and 1929-30) leaves our remote First Nations to have to continuously address critical community infrastructure breakdowns, and funding tied to the approval of the government of the day,” the statement says.
The Matawa chiefs are calling on Gull-Masty to respond to Neskantaga’s request for a new nursing station, and for both the provincial and federal governments to “appoint a specifically mandated working group until the state of emergency is lifted by the First Nation.”
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Quisses said his members are growing restless in Toronto. The evacuation disrupted the First Nation’s summer festival and youth retreat in August, and with the new school year looming, he’s concerned about what will happen to students who have been displaced.
Quisses said he’s doing what he can to address the loneliness and isolation faced by evacuees.
“It’s getting to that point where social issues start to arise.”
