A report recommending Ottawa relocate a remote northern Ontario reserve closer to a city has some people questioning whether the move is a form of assimilation or a path toward a more hopeful future.

Released Thursday by Alan Pope, a special adviser to the Indian affairs minister, the report recommends the troubled community of Kashechewan be moved 480 kilometres south from the shores of James Bay to the outskirts of the city of Timmins.

Alan Pope is a former Ontario cabinet minister and Timmins lawyer.
(CBC)

The community — which has been plagued by annual flooding, contaminated water, poor housing, and an 87 per cent unemployment rate — has been evacuated three times in the past two years.

Aboriginal leaders are taking the report back to Kashechewan to begin community consultations on its recommendations.

Some Kashechewan residents who have already moved to Timmins support the recommendation.

Fifteen-year-old Brent Wesley, whose family sends him from the reserve to a high school in the city of 50,000, is excited about the idea of a relocation.

"Kashechewan is going to be somewhere else. I think it's pretty cool," he said.

Corine Wabino moved to Timmins three months ago and now works at an aboriginal day care that opened to serve the growing influx of Cree from northern communities.

Wabino says she moved hundreds of kilometres south to give her children a better future, in particular a better education for her boys, who are both in high school.

Residents welcome idea

Timmins residents said while Pope's recommendation caught them off guard, they're open to the idea.

"Doesn't bother me. People gotta live," said Bob Ursulak.

"Actually I think it's great," said Lois Windsor. "I think they deserve to be looked after properly. Once everything's ironed out there, the details … I think it'll be a good idea."

Those details include where the new reserve would be located within the municipality and how much the relocation would cost.

Indian and Northern Affairs Minister Jim Prentice has not said whether Ottawa would fund the relocation. Prentice says that will be worked out once the community decides what to do.

"Obviously we'll be interested and, of course, it will mean negotiations with the federal government," said Timmins Mayor Victor Power.

MPP has questions

The provincial member of parliament for Timmins-James Bay, NDP Gilles Bisson, wonders whether the report is an admission of defeat on the government's part.

"We're basically saying to First Nations people, 'We've let you down. The system doesn't work, and by the way, our response? We'll assimilate you,'" said Bisson.

He says he understands why young people want to get off their reserve, but questions how such a move would affect the community's cultural identity.

"You see yourself living in a house with 20 people with mould, with water plants that don't work, with schools that are closed," said Bisson.

"Anywhere is better than where you are, so I can understand the appeal."

Bisson says the Mushkegowuk people are proud and connected to their roots and land.

"You can't pull 1,500 people off the land. There's a cost to that emotionally and psychologically for them."

Pope, a former Ontario cabinet minister, has recommended the residents of Kashechewan retain their traditional lands, giving them the chance to return to the area around Albany River to hunt and fish.