Kashechewan residents prepare for spring after INAC fails to invest in community
Press Release ...
Prentice Breaks Faith with Kashechewan: Conservative Inaction Leaves Residents Vulnerable to Impending Flood Season
2007-03-16 - Charlie Angus today condemned Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice for playing a cruel game with the people of Kashechewan. The minister has told community leaders he will not accept the results of a community consultation process that he commissioned to determine the future location for the flood-threatened community.
"We are on the eve of yet another flood season and the only thing Prentice has done since the last flood is delay and play games," said Angus. "Meanwhile the people of Kashechewan continue to suffer from squalid conditions and insufficient infrastructure."
Prentice has refused to accept the recommendations because he claims it will be too expensive.
"Prentice’s rejection of findings he commissioned is unacceptable. The people of Kashechewan have a signed agreement with the government of Canada to move them to safer ground," added Angus.
A thorough process was undertaken by Dr. Emily Fairies that determined the community overwhelmingly wants to be located to higher ground on their traditional territory.
The Kashechewan report debunks claims made by Prentice's personal envoy Allan Pope who claimed the community wanted to move off their territory to either Timmins or Smooth Rock Falls. In 2005, after sustained NDP pressure, the Liberal government moved to evacuate the residents of Kashechewan to save them from contaminated water that resulted in disease and squalid living conditions.
Angus says its time Prentice stopped dithering over Kashechewan.
"Prentice's own bureaucrats are speaking about a threat to life if the dike fails again. No steps have been taken to protect people from another flood. Prentice is gambling with the lives of the people of Kashechewan."
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New subdivision offers homes for Kash residents
Scott Paradis - March 13, 2007
It's a quiet, late February Monday afternoon in this remote community of 1,900 people.
Much of the town's population had left for the weekend, and not everyone had returned yet. Some left Friday for a concert, an all-chiefs meeting or a basketball tournament in Moose Factory. Others have left Kashechewan to visit friends, or partake in other activities in Attawapiskat or Moosonee.
Hitting the road for any reason is tempting for the people living in a community that only has roads leading to other towns for little more than two months a year.
But Kashechewan isn't completely silent.
The sound of power saws slicing into wood, hammers pounding on the heads of nails and heavy equipment ripping through the frozen soil disrupts the otherwise quiet morning.
A work crew of more than 12 men operates the power saws, hammers and heavy equipment.
They are creating a new subdivision for the town that is said to be in desperate need of housing.
Deputy Chief Philip Goodwin said funding for the new units and renovations of the old units has been lagging.
"Construction, it's kind of slow," said Goodwin.
There will be some development come late April or early May, he said. Those units, nearly 30 of them, will go to families in desperate need of new homes.
The new homes are in addition to the ones that have been undergoing renovations.
The housing issue is a personal one for Goodwin. His home, like many others in the community, is filled with multiple generations.
It isn't uncommon for some families to have upwards of 12 people living in a two- or three-bedroom home.
"A lot of people, a lot of families are in need of new homes," Goodwin said.
When the Kashechewan band began deciding what families in the community were in need of new housing units, they compiled a list of 90 family names.
The almost 30 homes now being constructed in a new subdivision will go to the families from that list considered most in need, Goodwin said.
At the construction site, progress is on track to provide the community with the new homes by spring.
"We're probably right now at this stage, about 25 per cent complete for the whole project," said Bill Aitken, technical co-ordinator for the construction project.
"Some of them will be done in about (four weeks)," Goodwin said, estimating that about 12 per cent of the total project complete by then.
A lot of building materials are still coming to the community via a winter road from Moosonee.
Aitken said those materials have to get to the community quickly, before the road begins to thaw, but he's hopeful that there won't be any problems.
Currently there are 13 carpenters, two mechanics, and three people working on sewer and water systems, and five heavy equipment operators.
"Most of them are local," he said.
When those materials do get to Kashechewan, Aitken said there shouldn't be anything in the way of the project being completed on time.
Aitken said he just hopes the project moves forward a little more comfortably in the coming weeks.
"I just hope it warms up," he said.