[IPSM] CBC: Ontario to airlift 1,000 from Cree reserve

[Stefan Christoff]

CBC News: Ontario to airlift 1,000 from Cree reserve
[http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2005/10/25/mushkegowak051025.html]

About 1,000 residents of the Kashechewan First Nation in northern Ontario 
will be evacuated from their reserve, where high amounts of E.coli 
bacteria have fouled drinking and bathing water for years.

Ontario Aboriginal Affairs Minister David Ramsay says about half of the 
residents of the remote reserve on the shores of James Bay will be flown 
out of the area beginning Wednesday.

"We've decided we're going to start a medical evacuation of patients who 
need to be treated," said Ramsay. "The doctors told us better treatment 
could be obtained outside of the community."

Traditionally, he said, serious medical cases have been treated in Timmins 
or Cochrane, both about 450 km to the south.

"It is a medical emergency, so these people really need to be removed."

About half of the reserve's 1,900 residents are suffering from skin 
conditions aggravated by the high levels of chlorine being used to 
disinfect the water, which has high levels of E. coli.

The Cree reserve has been under a boil-water advisory for two years, but 
intermittent water problems have been reported for five years.

Ramsay also says that in the long term, the entire community may need to 
be relocated.

Grand Chief Stan Louttit of the Mushkegowak credits Premier Dalton 
McGuinty with ordering the medical evacuation, but wants to know why it 
took so long.

As for the possible relocation of the entire community Louttit says, 
"There needs to be some discussions ... to the continuing problems of this 
community."

NDP critic Gilles Bisson says there are 50 other native communities in the 
province that also have to boil their drinking water.

The Walkerton inquiry recommended the province take over responsibility 
for drinking water in native communities. So far, Bisson said, nothing's 
been done.

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