Kashechewan First Nation opens mobile clinic to help evacuees

A corporation majority-owned by Kashechewan First Nation has set up a mobile clinic in Kapuskasing, Ont., to provide medical care for evacuees in that city.

Evacuations from the fly-in community, located near the coast of James Bay, started in early January after Chief Hosea Wesley declared a state of emergency.

A failure at the water treatment plant meant the community no longer had access to clean water.

To date, more than 1,900 of Kaschewan’s 2,300 people have evacuated to other cities in Ontario, including Kapuskasing, Timmins, Kingston and Niagara Falls.

Christopher Thind, Kashechewan’s director of health, said the community incorporated Creemergency last year so it could have more control over how it manages regular evacuations — due to the threat of flooding each spring.

He said that typically, both the federal government, through Indigenous Services Canada, and the province’s Ministry of Emergency Preparedness and Response would choose vendors to handle evacuations from remote First Nations communities.

Creemergency has partnered with the O’Briens Corporate Group in Kapuskasing to handle medical care for the evacuees in that city.

Thind said the idea is to reduce the strain on local health care resources, including the Sensenbrenner Hospital.

"We recognize that most health systems in the north are relatively fragile in terms of either lack of staffing or different schedules,” he said.

“What we wanted to do was provide a service that complemented what was available… at the hospital."

To date, he said 81 evacuees in Kapuskasing have visited the mobile clinics for medical care.

“Which is an absolutely impeccable use of resources,” Thind said. “So these are individuals that we have been able to keep out of the hospital system.”

The facility is staffed by volunteers — including registered nurses and nurse practitioners — with the Canadian Medical Assistance Teams, which normally operates abroad.

Mining company Agnico Eagle, which operates the Detour Lake Gold Mine northeast of Kapuskasing, donated $50,000 to help run the mobile clinic.

“Our support to evacuees from Kashechewan First Nation denotes our position in standing with First Nations communities during times of crisis,” said Andre Leite, vice-president for Agnico Eagle's Ontario operations, in an email to CBC News.

“Ensuring timely access to essential health services and supports is critical for families who have been displaced, and our continued support for initiatives such as the mobile clinic in Kapuskasing underscores our long-standing commitment when communities are facing urgent and challenging circumstances.”

Thind said there are no current plans for similar clinics in the other cities hosting evacuees. But those cities are also bigger than Kapuskasing, and have more health care capacity. 

He said some evacuees could end up in Cochrane, though, and it would be possible to move the clinic to that community for a short time.