Volunteer group helps get Neskantaga First Nation ready for winter when community away due to water issue

Community members of Neskantaga First Nation are now home, after living away from their community for weeks because of concerns of water quality flowing from the community's water treatment plant.

While living away from home for two months, people who live in the community, about 450 km north of Thunder Bay, Ont., were unable to get ready for winter.

Enter Team Rubicon, a group of volunteers, many who are veterans, who are willing to help out in a disaster situation.

The group deployed 14 volunteers, who worked on a rotation in Neskantaga. Team Rubicon helped "winterize" the community, cutting and splitting firewood for the 300 people in the community. Many of the homes in Neskantaga are heated with wood.

Eric Goodwin, the National Incident Management Team Lead for Team Rubicon said the hope is by working in Neskantaga, the group will be able to create new partnerships with other remote Indigenous communities.

He said it was the first time the organization had helped out a remote community in Ontario.

Volunteers with Team Rubicon also operated a command post in the community, and coordinated communications between people who were evacuated to Thunder Bay and those who stayed in Neskantaga.

Goodwin said he hopes the work in Neskantaga will lead to more relationships with Emergency Management Ontario and will help attract more volunteers for the new non-governmental organization, which was established in Canada in 2016.