Moose Factory opens emergency services centre - a first across NAN
Far North response facility launches; New emergency services centre based out of Moose Factory
Scott Paradis - June 28, 2007
Firefighters, paramedics, police officers and other emergency service workers will all share one roof in this island First Nation community.
After three years of construction and more than 10-years of planning Moose Cree First Nation officially held the grand opening of its Far North Emergency Preparedness and Response (EPR) Centre of Excellence, located on Moose Factory Island.
Wednesday's opening makes Moose Factory the first and only community within Nishnawbe-Aski Nation territory to have its emergency service facility meet basic national building code standards.
Doug Cheechoo, Emergency Preparedness and Response co-ordinator, said the emergency services that the new building will house isn't just for Moose Factory.
"It's for the James Bay area," he said. "A lot of people have died in fires, getting lost and running into trouble out in the (James) bay."
Cheechoo said in order to operate an emergency service properly, whether it's a fire department or police detachment, the community needs to have the right tools.
Adequate facilities like the new Far North EPR building is one of those necessary tools, he said.
"It's important to provide that to the firefighters, ambulance and police," he said. "They need a modern facility where they can train."
The total cost of the project was just less than $6 million. About $5.1 million of that was associated with construction costs while about $900,000 was spent on non-construction costs.
Those non-construction costs included, drafting a business plan, consultations, and finance plans among other things.
"We had a number of project partners and investors that came aboard and joined the project," Cheechoo said.
Some of those investors and project partners include Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation, Ministry of Northern Development and Mines, FedNor, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada and Mushkegowuk Employment Training Services.
"They all came forward and supported this project and we were able to achieve it," Cheechoo said.
"Of course Moose Cree (First Nation) was a major contributor - they invested about $1.4 million for this project. They really did their part."
The opening of the Far North EPR centre means that Moose Factory becomes the first community in Nishnawbe-Aski Nation (NAN) territory to have all its emergency services buildings meet basic building code standards.
NAN Grand Chief Stan Beardy spoke briefly during the building's official opening about the bittersweetness of such a fact.
"We don't have any fire halls across NAN, we don't have emergency measures across NAN," Beardy told The Daily Press after his speech. "This is the only one in all of NAN that meets the basic national building code."
Several communities have their own police detachment, volunteer fire department and search and rescue teams.
But the buildings those services work out of are "substandard" and wouldn't be accepted anywhere else in Canada, Beardy said.
Beardy hopes that the grand opening in Moose Factory is a sign of things to come. He said he would like to see his people push the government to get the same standards that other municipalities receive.
"We are part of Ontario," he said.
"We should have the same consideration as everyone else."