Ontario First Nation evacuated for second time this summer as nursing station flooded

TORONTO – 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. 

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, leading to raw sewage in its basement.

“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.”

Indigenous Services Canada said in a statement that the contractor involved in the damage to the septic system “was hired by the First Nation through funding from ISC.”

The federal department said its officials were “in immediate contact” with Neskantaga leaders on the evening of Aug. 3, when the sewage leak was found, and staff arrived in the community the next day. 

The department said it is unable to provide a timeline on the restoration of the nursing station as testing continues at the facility.

“Neskantaga leadership has brought forward a request for a new health facility given their current state of emergency. We are meeting frequently with the nation,” the statement said. “Our immediate focus is on supporting the emergency response and discussions will continue around the community’s short-, medium- and long-term needs.”

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. 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 20, 2026.