As I was saying, my village has about 3,000 members and, like all remote villages, it faces social challenges such as lack of jobs, recreation and housing. The latter sometimes leads to a difficult social climate, as our members often live with several families under one roof.
We are 85 kilometres by road in the forest of Saint-Michel-des-Saints, which means far from everything. We are also 270 kilometres from Montreal, 390 kilometres from Quebec City and 425 kilometres from Ottawa. These facts are significant, since we live in a remote village with a precarious access road; the slightest incident cuts us off from the world.
Why are the people of Manawan, who live far from the Arctic, concerned about Arctic glaciers melting? This concern stems from a report released by the Government of Canada in 2019 called “Canada’s Changing Climate Report.” The report does not give much hope for the future, and therefore for our children, if we continue to consume, overexploit wealth and destroy forests that give us life as well as all the animal and plant resources that allow us to feed ourselves. In fact, the report states that melting ice and glaciers are causing sea levels to rise faster in Canada than anywhere else in the world.
As a result, precipitation is increasing each year in the spring. This means that ice melts faster, rivers swell and water tables fill up more quickly. The temperature has risen by 1.1 degrees Celsius since 1948. This does not bode well for us, the Atikamekw of Manawan, in the coming years. If another increase of 1.1 degrees Celsius over the next 60 years comes to pass as predicted, lake and river levels will rise dramatically.
In fact, our village is in a basin on the edge of Lake Kempt. If the lake level rises, the water will not be able to drain away on its own. It will stagnate in the village, impossible to absorb. We will then have to be evacuated or even relocated. At the moment there are so many of us that even partial rehousing could take years, since we would have to rebuild. Given the lack of housing in the village, people would have no choice but to cram house with even larger numbers. Others would leave for the city, even if they don’t want to. Unfortunately, when families move to the city, children lose their culture. It is very difficult to return to the village afterwards and it undermines our social fabric.
However, this would not be our only problem. There would be a lot of fires. The forest would become parched, with drier summers because of the heat. In Manawan, we are surrounded by forest. The slightest spark could burn trees in the area, as well as our homes. Our fire department would not be able to save anything. We have only a handful of volunteer firefighters and we don’t even have a truck with a ladder. If our school caught fire with the students inside, the firefighters couldn't rescue those trapped on the second floor.
And because the road is bad and unpaved in places, we would not necessarily have the help of emergency services from outside, given the difficulties associated with transportation. Actually, if it rains too much, sections can be washed away. If it is too hot, the dust makes travel difficult.
Evacuating injured or disabled people would be another problem if such a disaster were to occur, as we only have one ambulance on site. If many of us had to be evacuated at the same time for our health, it would be a real logistical and health disaster.
Therefore, I am here to encourage governments to get ready to help not only those living near the Arctic, but also all inland indigenous peoples and communities. We will need help to fight climate emergencies, because all our communities are usually near a river or a lake.
Manawan should be a priority, for that matter, because of its location in a basin, since this makes the community vulnerable in the event of a climate emergency.
Thank you very much for your attention.