QUEEN'S PARK — Neskantaga First Nation and the New Democratic Party are trying to ramp up pressure on the Ford government to do more to help the community during its drinking water emergency.
The leadership ordered the airlifting of more than 230 residents of the remote First Nation to Thunder Bay nearly two weeks ago after an oily sheen appeared in the water supply.
The Ontario government asked the City of Thunder Bay to host the evacuees.
Chief Chris Moonias has given the federal government a list of preconditions, including the provision of safe running water from taps on a 24-hour basis, before his people can return home.
The Ontario NDP announced Monday that Sol Mamakwa, the MPP for Kiiwetinoong, will host two Neskantaga representatives who plan a multi-day sit-in at the legislature, calling for the provincial government to increase its involvement.
A party spokesperson said they will take seats in the visitors' gallery of the legislature.
The sit-in will begin Tuesday, November 3, and will be a call to the Ford government "to bring running water back to the community, now", said an NDP advisory to the media.
The statement said Lawrence Sakanee and Alex Moonias hope "to finally spark action from the province after 25 years of water crisis has come to a head with a full evacuation."
The community has endured Canada's longest boil water advisory,
A water treatment plant was built four years ago, but delays, equipment failure and other infrastructure failures last year led to a "do not consume" order.
Federal Minister of Indigenous Services Marc Miller has said it’s a priority to work with community leaders and other legislative bodies to ensure the necessary repairs are made as quickly as possible.
“Long-term, the federal government invested about $16.5 million in the plant, which is pretty much ready to go. There is a distribution system that is obviously not working and leaking that we’re moving to repair, as well as a connected waste-water problem,” Miller stated in an interview on Oct. 22, 2020.
