With the prospect of spring flooding weeks away, leaders of the Kashechewan First Nation have renewed their call for government help for the troubled northern Ontario community.

"My people today are very edgy because of the spring flood that's just around the corner," Chief Johnathon Solomon said during a news conference Wednesday in Ottawa.

Earlier this month, Solomon said Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice had balked at a report saying the community preferred to be relocated 30 kilometres upstream within their traditional lands. The move could cost as much as $500 million.

The band report contradicts an earlier federal report recommending community members be moved to the city of Timmins, about 480 kilometres to the south.

Kashechewan lies on the flood plain of the Albany River, and many of its buildings are susceptible to flooding.

Solomon said Prentice has committed to officially respond to the community report.

"I'm just waiting for that commitment, and I have every confidence the minister will get back to me," he said.

Solomon said the phones in the band council office have been "ringing off the hook" with people asking if they are going to be moved out before the expected flooding.

He called on the Conservative government to honour a 2005 deal, reached with the previous Liberal government, to build a new community within their traditional hunting grounds in 10 years.

Last November, a report prepared for Indian Affairs by former Ontario cabinet minister Alan Pope recommended moving the reserve to the outskirts of Timmins, giving community members access to hospitals, schools and employment.

Prentice had repeatedly said the people could choose whether to relocate, but following the release of the survey, a spokesperson for Indian Affairs told CBC News the cost projections had forced the ministry to take a second look.

Ottawa first moved the community, against its will, to the low-lying land in 1957.

Flooding and tainted water have prompted three evacuations since 2004.

The evacuations came as the community grappled with squalid housing, domestic violence, addiction and a number of reported suicide attempts.

Prentice himself has called conditions on the reserve "deplorable."