Pauingassi Unit

Location

Pauingassi is a remote community located approximately 280 kilometers northeast of Winnipeg and is situated on the shores of Family Lake near the Manitoba/Ontario border.

Population

The on-reserve population is 624 and the off-reserve is 66 with a total population of 690 members.

Chief and CFS Portfolio Councillor

Chief is Roddy Owens and the CFS Portfolio Councilor is Mary Ann Crow-Suggashie.

Pauingassi First Nation

Pauingassi First Nation is a gorgeous remote community although access to the community is often challenging and expensive. The winter road is open for about a month each year. Float planes can land on the lake in the spring and summer but not during freeze up and break up. There is a helicopter service to transport persons from the Little Grand Rapids Airport which is 24 kilometers away. In the winter, transportation is provided by snowmobile or by vehicles when the ice road is deemed safe for travel. This winter, the community made an airstrip so that the planes can land right on the lake in Pauingassi.

The community's infrastructure and resources are: Band Office; Nursing Station; Health Centre which houses all the health programs such as NADAP, Brighter Futures, Building Healthy Communities and Jordan's Principle; DOJO's Store; Northern Store; New Dream Lodge Building; SECFS office; Shawenim ABinoojii homes; and, the RCMP serves the community from its detachment in Little Grand Rapids.

There are two community churches, and the Omiishosh Memorial School offers kindergarten to grade 9, with students being required to leave the community to attend beyond grade 9. During the pandemic, the school has been closed, and schoolwork continues to be delivered to the children.

The community is growing very rapidly with 18 new family homes built this year. Jordan's Principle also have a home for their staff that come to the community for work. Currently the home is also used as an isolation home for when the community members return from the City.

The community also constructed an outdoor skating rink, a baseball field, and an outdoor track which will promote the children, youth, and adults to be physically active.

Shawenim Abinoojii provides 10 units in the community that are available for children in need of placement. The homes are used for temporary and long-term placements that help prevent children from being placed outside the community; most often, the placements are filled. There were 2 new units that were built this year and are being utilized as isolation unit when the community member's return from the City. Shawenim is also using one of the units as their office.

The community also loves to go fishing during the summer and even during the winter. They also enjoy going out to their traplines to trap and hunt.