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From http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2006/05/02/1561349-cp.html

Ontario supports Kashechewan territory move - By STEVE ERWIN - May 2, 2006

TORONTO (CP) - New land has been approved in principle for the beleaguered Kashechewan First Nations community, who have been given Ontario government permission to pursue a move to a provincial Crown territory on higher ground some 30 kilometres upriver.

The land swap would see the northern Ontario community, which faces annual flooding that last month led to an evacuation of virtually all its 1,700 residents, move to new land agreed upon Tuesday in a meeting between provincial Aboriginal Affairs Minister David Ramsay and aboriginal leaders.

Ramsay said ministry officials still need to complete final checks to ensure there are no timber licences or mining claims on the proposed land. It is located on the same side of the Albany River, which runs west of James Bay, as the current reserve.

But Ramsay said the province has no issues with handing the Crown land over to the Kashechewan First Nation, provided the federal government gives its blessing too. The move requires Ottawa's approval because the new territory must be designated as reserve land under federal law.

"As far as we're concerned, money's not an issue here," Ramsay said when asked whether the province would need to be compensated for turning over province-owned land to the First Nation community. "We've just to got to give these people a safe place to live."

Kashechewan's current location is on low land surrounded by a dike that often fails to keep homes from flooding when the ice breaks each year during spring thaw.

The new site is one of six that Kashechewan's band leaders had earlier proposed as potential places to relocate the community, said Grand Chief Stan Loutitt of the Mushkegowuk Council of tribes in northern Ontario. The site agreed upon with the province is the only one that didn't encounter flooding this spring, he said.

Ramsay said the new location is some 55 metres above sea level; the current Kashechewan land is only five-metres above sea level.

A formal transfer of the provincial Crown land is necessary for the relocation to begin because the proposed new territory falls outside Kashechewan's current reserve boundaries.

"This kind of starts the process," said Loutitt, who will join Kashechewan Chief Leo Friday in a Wednesday meeting with federal Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice.

The pair will ask Prentice to accelerate the move of Kashechewan's residents to a permanent new home within one or two years - much faster than the 10-year plan put forth by the previous Liberal government in Ottawa.

The Liberals made that pledge following another mass evacuation of Kashechewan last fall that drew national headlines. That evacuation was forced by a contaminated water scare that raised health concerns for residents.

Loutitt said it makes "fiscal sense" to make the move sooner rather than later so that governments can avoid spending millions more dollars in the next few years for additional evacuations of Kashechewan.

"We just can't be spending millions of dollars every year on evacuations," Loutitt said following his meeting with Ramsay in Toronto.

Friday said his community members are anxious to relocate.

"I just want to see a move right away - not talk about it for another two years in order for it to happen," he said.

"A lot of people in the community say, 'Let's move now.' "

Most of Kashechewan's residents are currently in temporary accommodations in northern Ontario host communities, though many of them are stuck living in makeshift shelters such as local arenas.

"They're really in a terrible situation," Friday said.