Cat Lake struggling without power

Cat Lake is facing a crisis after the power transmission line serving the community was burned July 10 by a forest fire about 50 kilometres to the southwest.
“We have fires surrounding us from all directions actually,” said Cat Lake Chief Matthew Keewaykapow during a July 15 interview. “There is a lot of smoke all over and most of the chronic phase one people have been evacuated.”
One hundred and forty-three of the community’s Elders, babies and chronic patients with respiratory problems were evacuated July 14 to Kapuskasing and another 107 evacuated to Kirkland Lake July 15.
“It’s OK when it’s kind of windy but in the evening when the wind dies down, that is when the smoke comes down,” Keewaykapow said. “We had quite a bit of complaints from the community about sore throats and chest pains.”
Keewaykapow said forest fire ash is also falling to the ground like snow.
“You can actually see the ash in the air too,” Keewaykapow said. “It was like snowing yesterday.”
The community issued a press release July 14 stating that Hydro One refused to connect and activate the diesel generation station in the community, which was used during the last power outage due to another forest fire.
“It’s all connected,” Keewaykapow said. “The only place they disconnected it when the power was fixed was the transformers.”
A Hydro One spokeswoman said power should be restored to Cat Lake, Slate Falls, Mishkeegogamang, Pickle Lake and Musselwhite Mine by the weekend of July 16-17.
“Hydro One expects to restore power to all customers this weekend,” said Daniele Gauvin, spokeswoman with Hydro One, during a July 15 interview.
Gauvin said Hydro One decided the quickest approach to get power back to all five communities was to rebuild the line.
“It takes several days to refurbish (the diesel generation station), to get it up and running,” Gauvin said. “Since the power will be back on by Monday, it was decided to have everyone re-energized at once was the best approach, rather than do a short-term approach which would take until Monday anyway.”
Keewaykapow believes it would take about one day to activate the diesel generation station.
“All they need is one, two, three connections,” Keewaykapow said. “Three places to connect it and disconnect it at the main power source towards the east at the Northern Store and you can have power.”
Keewaykapow said the community has been talking to Hydro One every day and even offered Hydro One diesel fuel to operate the diesel generation station.
Hydro One crews began repairing the transmission line July 13 after the Ministry of Natural Resources determined it was safe to do so.
More than 80 lines staff and other support personnel are working to rebuild more than 80 hydro poles destroyed by the fire along a 13-kilometre section of the transmission line, including 40 structures destroyed by the fire and 40 seriously damaged.
“We expect to restore power to the rebuilt line section earlier than expected, following tremendous effort from Hydro One crews and from the Ministry of Natural Resource’s fire suppression support, as well as support from the surrounding communities,” said Gordon Caul, distribution superintendant for provincial lines in northwestern Ontario.
Chief and council expressed concerns about sewers backing up into homes due to no electricity to operate the sewage system. The water plant is currently working at a minimum.
The community also requested camp stoves, lanterns, naphtha, coolers and generators from Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada (formerly INAC) but had not received any assistance as of July 15.
An AANDC spokeswoman said the priority has been to evacuate the most vulnerable members of the community.
“Windigo Tribal Council will be shipping all requested items into Cat Lake by the end of the day today,” said Susan Bertrand, spokeswoman with AANDC, in a July 15 e-mail. “Ontario's Ministry of Natural Resources has also provided 12 generators on loan.”
Chief and council said food is becoming an issue as the local store does not have electricity to power refrigeration units for perishables. While the store does have dry goods in stock, community members have no means of cooking the food without electricity.
“They have some fish and traditional food — I think that ran out yesterday,” Keewaykapow said. “They were cooking that yesterday.”
One house fire has been reported due to the use of candles for lighting.
“It was a case of a candle burning to the stub,” Keewaykapow said.
One person also burned their hand while cooking on an outside campfire.