Skip to main content

Attawapiskat is located on the western shores of James Bay and is prone to flooding in the spring.Jonathan P Nakogee

Government officials say they've finished evacuating residents from a remote First Nations community in northern Ontario.

They say more than 1,000 vulnerable residents from Attawapiskat have been moved to other communities – Kirkland Lake, Fort Frances and Wawa in Ontario and Val d'Or, Rouyn-Noranda, and La Sarre in Quebec.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services says they're continuing to monitor the Albany and Attawapiskat rivers.

He says decisions will be made in the coming days about possibly planning to return evacuees to their home communities.

Attawapiskat First Nation leaders declared an emergency due to the high risk of flooding and asked for vulnerable residents to be moved out the community on the west coast of James Bay.

An evacuation involving more than 1,500 residents from the Kashechewan First Nation was completed last week.

Interact with The Globe