All the residents from the Ontario Kashechewan First Nation have been forced from their homes due to flooding on the remote northern reserve.
With the exception of a few band leaders, all 2,000 evacuees have been taken to nearby communities including Thunder Bay, Kapuskasing, Timmins, Cornwall and Greenstone.
A handful of band leaders are staying behind to ensure that the dikes and the system are in place to protect the community, located on the shores of James Bay, CTV's Peter Akman reported Tuesday from Thunder Bay.
The evacuations began over the weekend, after community leaders declared a state of emergency. Both the federal and provincial governments have been involved in helping with the evacuations.
According to Ontario's Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services, about 600 people have been relocated to Thunder Bay, 125 have been relocated to the town of Greenstone, 485 have gone to Cornwall and 255 have gone to Kapuskasing. An additional 37 evacuees are expected to be relocated to Kapuskasing later Tuesday, the ministry said.
The flooding has caused major damage to critical pieces of infrastructure including the community's sewer system and a nursing station.
"Sewage has been pushed through the system out into the community, all over the community and that's really a concern – a health concern," Akman said.
The First Nation has a history of flooding. However a federal plan to move the entire community to higher ground was scrapped, with the community receiving about $200 million in 2007 to improve infrastructure and strengthen dikes instead.
New Democrat Charlie Angus, the MP for the region, said that the repetitive cycle of evacuating and rebuilding is taking its toll on the community.
"The cost that we're spending year after year, flying people out, and the emotional trauma in the community is extraordinary when people lose their possessions," he told reporters on Monday.
The evacuations come just as the UN released a special report warning of a crisis in Canada in terms of the relationship between the government and First Nations people.
The report, released Monday, notes the "distressing socio-economic" conditions of indigenous peoples in Canada, which is particularly jarring given Canada's high level of development.
It also highlights the "disturbing phenomenon" of missing and murdered aboriginal women and calls on Ottawa to launch a national inquiry into the issue.
Report author James Anaya, the UN special rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, said there appears to be a high level of distrust among aboriginals in Canada toward the federal and provincial governments.
