Smoke from wildfires threatens Kashechewan First Nation

Timmins-James Bay MP Charlie Angus said Friday the wildfire raging near Fort Albany First Nation has become a traumatic experience for people who live in that community and in nearby Kashechewan.

Angus said around 480 people have been evacuated from Fort Albany, but now he said the issue is getting people out of Kashechewan as smoke blowing into the community is a threat to residents' health, especially elders and children.

He said community leaders asked him for assistance and in turn, he has requested that the government send military planes as soon as possible to evacuate Kashechewan.

“I’m hoping today some of that rigmarole will start to clear with the Canadian military coming in,” Angus said.

“It’s taken a while to get that in place and what it tells me, in future, given the climate instability we’re facing, we need to get better at this and move quicker and certainly in Treaty 9, I think people are much more feeling that they want to be more in the driver seat of looking after evacuations because they’re living this reality all too often.”

He said the plan is to send evacuees to the Toronto area and to other northern communities such as Timmins and Kapuskasing.