As ice road melts, a First Nation eyes solid ground – National Observer

Two years ago, the snowy scene outside the window next to Terry Metatawabin looked much different. Soot was hitting the glass, bright orange combined with black smoke taking over any natural sky – “like watching a volcano.”

“We evacuated everybody in 24 hours. The whole community,” said Metatawabin, deputy chief of Fort Albany First Nation, a community nestled on the southern shore of the Albany River, which pours into James Bay.

“I remember somebody running in here. They were saying, ‘It’s coming towards us’,” added Chief Elizabeth Kataquapit, remembering the scene at their office during a huge wildfire in 2023.

Water bombers came and saved the community of about 1,500. There were back-to-back evacuations in Fort Albany that spring: first, due to flooding, and then, prompted by the wildfire. As the multiple climate-change impacts the community experiences only stand to intensify, the First Nation is determined to move forward on a plan more ambitious than anything they’ve tackled before: a permanent road from Fort Albany to the south.