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The James Bay winter road played an important role this year for donations from De Beers Victor Mine that will help improve the lives of people living in two remote communities.

A community garden program and new meeting space for women, elders and youth will be created in thanks to surplus materials moved from Victor Mine, in-kind donations worth close to $30,000.

“Supporting communities comes in many forms, whether it’s donating surplus materials we can repurpose to support local initiatives or by providing space at our Moosonee Yard Operations to store badly needed community housing units until they could be moved once the James Bay winter road opened,” explained Sherri Lapointe, Superintendent of Indigenous Relations and Sustainability for Victor Mine.

A surplus modular office unit and a six-metre long sea can shipping container were sent to Fort Albany First Nation where they will be used to store gardening tools and supplies for a community garden project.

Two other surplus modular office units were moved to Kashechewan First Nation from the Victor Mine site. The units will be used to host various activities including bingos, tea and bannock, sewing clubs for elders and women, as well as a space for elders to tell traditional stories for the community’s youth.

De Beers also provided free space in our Moosonee Yard Operations storage yard to store 80 housing units destined for Kashechewan on this year’s winter road.

Victor Mine is located in the James Bay lowlands of Northern Ontario, about 90 km from Attawapiskat. The winter road is a 400 km seasonal transportation route built between Moosonee and Victor Mine, including to remote Aboriginal communities in the region. The road is used to transport large and bulk items, including fuel, food and other supplies to the communities and the mine during a 6-8 week period each winter. The road closed for the season on March 26, 2017.