By Sue Bailey
Canadian Press

OTTAWA (CP) - Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice will sign an agreement Monday toward rebuilding, but not moving, the flood-prone Kashechewan First Nation, The Canadian Press has learned.

The remote northern Ontario reserve of about 1,800, near the coast of James Bay, is on low-lying land that has flooded twice in the last three years. Residents were also evacuated in 2005 because of a dirty water crisis that made international headlines.

A report produced by consultants hired by Kashechewan to survey the community said most people want to move to higher ground within their traditional territory. They say it's just a matter of time before their homes flood again.

The former Liberal government promised to rebuild 50 Kashechewan homes a year for 10 years.

Total relocation costs for the community were estimated at $500 million. The Conservatives said the Liberals never officially budgeted that cash, and that it's too expensive to move the reserve.

Instead, sources say the new agreement will establish a working group to assess the First Nation's long-and short-term needs, but will not move it off the flood plain.

A memorandum of understanding to be presented Monday offers scant details but no commitment to move the troubled First Nation, says community member Rebecca Friday.

"It does not make sense," she said in an interview from the isolated reserve about 450 kilometres north of Timmins.

"I do not know what they have up their sleeve but I don't trust them at all," she said of the Conservatives.

Kashechewan Chief Jonathan Solomon issued an urgent call for help last March as the community faced another spring thaw. Unlike last year, the ice breakup did not sweep sewage and flood waters from the Albany River through the dismal collection of plywood homes.

But Solomon stressed his peoples' desire to move from the flood plain where Ottawa forcibly moved the Cree hunters and their families in 1957.

When reached Sunday night, he declined to comment on Prentice's impending announcement.

Friday says she and many other residents are confused about what lies ahead.

Recent consultation meetings held by the chief included few details about Monday's planned announcement, and drew relatively few people, she said.

"The youth weren't there. . . . I think they've totally given up," she said.

Many residents have lost hope since the Conservatives refused to honour the Liberal promise of relocation, she said.

"What is in the package? What are we facing up here? It won't make any sense if we stay in the community, because of global warming.

"Who are they going to blame if something happens? And it's going to."

In the meantime, Kashechewan residents continue to languish in overcrowded houses surrounded by a faulty protective flood wall.

"The people are still experiencing rashes" from the water that comes out of their taps, Friday said.

Photos of toddlers riddled with scabies blamed on dirty water were a wincing embarrassment for Ottawa in October 2005.

Liberal MP and former Indian Affairs Minister Andy Scott was under intense pressure when he jumped through a series of bureaucratic hoops to approve the relocation, he has said.

His most outraged opposition critics at the time included Stephen Harper, now prime minister, and Prentice.

Since becoming Indian Affairs minister, Prentice has said it makes more sense to fortify the flood dike and rebuild existing infrastructure worth about $200 million.

He was not immediately available for comment late Sunday.

Scott and former Finance minister Ralph Goodale have both strenuously insisted that the cash to move Kashechewan was available and booked in the fall of 2005. The proof of that, they say, is the fact that reconstruction materials began arriving on barges in the community soon after.

NDP MP Charlie Angus, whose riding includes Kashechewan, says a promised fresh start is being tragically lost.

"We had a signed agreement with the government of Canada," he said in an interview. "The people would have been part of the rebuilding."

The Conservatives have nixed relocation based on guess-work pricetags without ever doing an extensive cost estimate on the ground, he said.

It would be folly to throw good money after bad," he added.

"Sooner or later, it's going to flood again. We need serious commitment of infrastructure, health and economic investment. But I don't trust Jim Prentice's word on anything about the James Bay coast."