Neskantaga First Nation had to be evacuated again after a sewage flood at the community’s only nursing station, the northern Ontario community’s chief said on Thursday.
Gary Quisess said Neskantaga residents had to leave the community earlier this month for the second time this summer, just days after they returned home following a wildfire evacuation.
“It’s not a good feeling to be displaced and a hotel is not a long term facility for a community to stay in,” he said during a press conference at Queen’s Park.
“It’s heartbreaking. All of our plans, summer plans, are gone. Our community festival. Our family reunion, it’s gone. Youth retreat is gone. Everything.”
He said families from his community are staying in crowded hotel rooms in Toronto and they want to return to their homes as soon as possible.
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Overcrowded housing is already a problem in Neskantaga, he said.
“Now where we are today, it’s not suitable.”
Quisess said the fly-in community about 425 kilometres north of Thunder Bay declared a state of emergency after a contractor damaged the septic system under a nursing station, which is the community’s only health-care facility.
“Everything’s impacted with this human error. That’s not right.”
Quisess said the federal government should work with the community to address the situation at the nursing station so people can return to their homes.
“There are so many shortcuts with these contractors and that has to change,” he said.
“Our lives matter. We have treaty rights. We have inherent rights. We need the government to step up.”
Neskantaga officials said the damage caused raw sewage to back up and fill the basement of the nursing station.
NDP MPP Sol Mamakwa, who represents the Kiiwetinoong riding in northern Ontario, said a total of 258 community members were evacuated from Neskantaga First Nation to Toronto.
“The people of Neskantaga First Nation have been once again been forced to leave their community because essential infrastructure has failed them,” he said.
The community was also evacuated in July as wildfires ravaged parts of northern Ontario.
Community members were also evacuated early last year for three months after the same nursing station was flooded with diesel.
They started returning to their homes in April 2025 after the nursing station was reopened.
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