Annual evacuation of northern Ontario First Nation underway with spring melt

The flood-prone James Bay community of Kashechewan is once again emptying out with the break-up of ice on the Albany River expected this week.

Some 300 vulnerable people from the Cree First Nation in Ontario's far north are being flown to Kapuskasing, with several flights scheduled for Wednesday.

Another 1,100 are out at their hunt camps with the help of federal funding, instead of being flown to hotel rooms in cities and towns to the south. 

"I personally don't like the river break-ups. It creates a lot of anxiety," said Gaius Wesley, who was elected Kashechewan's chief in August. 

"It's frustrating knowing that we'll never have peace like anybody else because of our community's situation."

This is the third year for this "out on the land" evacuation, which started in 2020 out of fear that people from Kashechewan could contract COVID-19 during the annual exodus and bring it back to the isolated community.  

Wesley says the community was asking for a program like this, which has helped hundreds more get in touch with the traditional goose hunt, long before the pandemic. 

"The stress level is not there when you're at camp, compared to being displaced in another community. Our people never wanted that kind of interruption," he said. 

Wesley said there remains about 900 in Kashechewan who might have to be airlifted out if floodwaters come into the community in the coming days. 

"These are the people we worry about," he said, adding that measurements of ice thickness and snow depth down river indicate this could be a bad year for flooding. 

To avoid this annual evacuation, there are long delayed plans to move Kashechewan off of the flood plain of the Albany River.

The latest plan is to relocate the entire community of 2,000 people to a place known as "Site 5," about 30 km to the south.

In 2019, the federal government promised to move Kashechewan within 8-10 years, at a cost estimated to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Wesley says some preliminary plans and studies are being drawn up and staff hired to oversee the move, but he says the community will still face many more nervous spring break-ups before they are safely on higher ground. 

"Technically work is progressing on paper, but I'm starting to see that it will be a very slow political process," he said.