Kapuskasing had decided to focus on COVID-19 and not host flood evacuees from the James Bay coast community of Kashechewan this spring. But Mayor Dave Plourde says council changed its mind, when the province said it would go ahead with bringing evacuees to Kap anyway.
“So council met and felt that if there’s going to be an evacuation in our community, certainly we want to be proactive rather than reactive and certainly be on the inside looking out, not on the outside looking in,” the mayor remarks.
In the past, evacuations have been precautionary, even before flooding occurred. Mayor Plourde says this year, it has to be “life and limb”.
“You can understand that the resources that we use to host an evacuation,” Plourde adds, “it’s a great amount of work that’s put into it and right now, all of our resources are in battling COVID. So it’s a huge strain on our resources.”
