CAT LAKE – The modular items for a brief nursing station in Cat Lake have arrived.
In reality, Chief Russell Wesley stated this week, the seven items have been pieced collectively for the basic construction of the nursing station.
Now the gaps between the items must be sealed and insulated for the station’s opening by late April on the earliest, Wesley stated.
It’s a fast turnaround from the fireplace that destroyed the distant First Nation’s Margaret Gray Nursing Station on March 2, and Wesley credited the climate and well timed help from Ottawa.
Winter highway season began late however the area’s climate remained chilly sufficient for the modulars to be hauled in, he stated.
“As a matter of fact, the reports are coming back from a bunch of road users that the winter roads are still very solid and we still have at least another week left,” he added.
“I’m really glad that spring decided to be late.”
Indigenous Services Canada got here by way of with $2.8 million in funding for the modular items’ buy, transport and setup.
“Following the devastating fire of Cat Lake First Nation’s nursing station, the federal government committed to being by the community’s side, and we meant it,” stated Jennifer Kozelj, press secretary to Indigenous Services Minister Patty Hajdu.
After the fireplace, the nursing station arrange store at a building the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry makes use of in hotter months as a base for forest firefighters.
Starting as we speak, the nurses can be offering their companies at one other construction till the brand new modulars are prepared to be used.
A brand new everlasting nursing station had been designed earlier than the blaze and can be constructed within the subsequent couple of years, Wesley stated.
The 82 residents who had been evacuated to Thunder Bay for medical causes on March 8 will stay there till the nursing station is totally operational, Cat Lake spokesperson Vicki Blanchard stated.
A spokesperson for the Nishnawbe Aski Police Service, which investigated the fireplace with the provincial Office of the Fire Marshal, stated the blaze’s trigger “was determined to be non-criminal.”
The exact trigger is for the Office of the Fire Marshal to find out, the police spokesperson added.
Besides the modular items’ arrival and meeting, Wesley had different excellent news. A boil-water advisory made in late February has been lifted.
Mike Stimpson, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Thunder Bay Source
