Only five days after members of Neskantaga First Nation returned home from the wildfire evacuation, a new emergency has its members on their way out again.
Chief and council of the fly-in northwestern Ontario First Nation declared a state of emergency on Tuesday, after sewage backed up and filled the basement of its beleaguered health centre.
Neskantaga Chief Gary Quisess said he’s disappointed the federal contractor who was working in the facility didn’t accept the offer of their local sewage pumping truck before doing the work that has now caused the second evacuation of the summer.
“It’s very disappointing. The community is really feeling it,” Quisess said.
“There’s going to be a lot of remediation. They’ve got to take the whole foundation out. The raw sewage doesn’t go anywhere when it seeps underground. It stays there until you remove it.”
The evacuation comes as the community of 350 people located 450 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay returns from two weeks in Toronto hotels where they fled from the worst forest fire season in Ontario history. It also comes as Neskantaga prepares for its week-long summer festival. The event, which welcomes off-reserve members home for feasts, games, and a pow wow, is cancelled.
It’s the second time in as many years that the chief and council have ordered the health centre condemned. Rapidly rising spring temperatures caused extreme snow melt in 2025, when the facility sunk into the sand under the dizzying scent of diesel fuel. Neskantaga’s health centre was among infrastructure concerns that then-Ontario ombudsman Paul Dubé would come to call “unacceptable and unsafe conditions.”
“We have to evacuate everybody now because of this error – human error. Contractors should be liable. This was preventable.”
Following a brief evacuation, nurses worked out of a temporary facility in twin trailers from April until November. That’s when Neskantaga’s chief and council ordered the health centre reopened so those trailers could accommodate two homeless families.
Quisess said he’s experiencing “déjà vu,” adding this never should have happened.
“We have to evacuate everybody now because of this error – human error. Contractors should be liable. This was preventable.”
Neskantaga members do not know where they will go when planes take off. A meeting between leadership and Indigenous Services Canada is scheduled for 4 p.m.
This is a developing story. ISC media immediately committed to issuing a statement “as soon as we can.”
Jon Thompson is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter based in Thunder Bay. Contact him with tips and story ideas at Jon@ricochet.media.
