Half of the residents of the Kashechewan Reserve in Northern Ontario are being airlifted out of their homes after having lived in conditions comparable to those of some developing nations.

Tainted water is forcing about 1,000 of the remote James Bay community's residents to be moved to places like Sudbury, Timmins and Cochrane, Ontario for medical treatment.

About 70 people left Wednesday night, and another 100 will be moved Thursday.

Indignant deputy chief Rebecca Friday told CTV News that she had had enough. "I think that this is the last straw for my people," she said. "I'm not going to tolerate it anymore."

Kashechewan has been under a boil-water order for more than two years and has had other boil advisories over the last eight years. Earlier this month Dr. Murray Trusler visited the reserve and detailed the deplorable conditions and health problems plaguing the community.

Residents were warned two weeks ago to stop using the water altogether due to high levels of E. coli in the water supply -- the same bacteria that killed seven people in Walkerton five years ago.

Late Tuesday the Ontario Government responded, declaring a state of emergency for the Kashechewan Reserve and announcing the airlifts.

For those who are staying behind, the government is currently airlifting in about 700 bottles of water per day. People are using the bottled water for drinking, cooking and even washing, because they say if they don't they will suffer skin irritations.

The irritations are brought on by water contamination reportedly blamed on a deteriorating water treatment plant built downstream from a sewage lagoon.

Native leaders want a new reserve built on another location for the people of Kashechewan and they warn that there could be similar cases brewing in substandard water treatment plants on other reserves.

It is estimated that there are more than 100 native communities across Canada under boil water advisories. Most often it's because of unstable chlorine levels, high uranium levels and E. coli contamination.

Polluted water is blamed for several illnesses including chronic diarrhea and skin diseases such as scabies.

Political blame game

Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty blasted Prime Minister Paul Martin, stating that if the federal government is not prepared to assume responsibility it should talk to McGuinty and other premiers to come to a new arrangement for reserves with such troubles.

"At the present time according to the rules, they've been missing in action," he said.

McGuinty's allegation was echoed on Parliament Hill later Wednesday, when federal Conservative Leader Stephen Harper demanded Martin answer the charge.

"First of all, the Minister of Indian Affairs (Andy Scott) was at the reservation last week to deal with it," the prime minister shot back, adding that an agreement signed almost a decade ago makes the province responsible for handling the evacuation.

The federal government's responsibility, Martin said, is to pay for the operation.

"We are assuming our responsibility and we are dealing with the situation and we will do so."

Scott told reporters in Ottawa that no Canadian could think of the Kashechewan as anything but a terrible situation, but the natives "deserve much better than just immediate fixes."

Scott also came under heavy fire during the daily House of Commons question period Wednesday, as opposition MPs pressed him to admit having mishandled the situation.

"Where was this minister, where was this government," Conservative MP Jim Prentice asked, asking for the prime minister to assume responsibility for Scott's portfolio.

"When will he stand up and prevent our citizens from living in the Third World?"

Answering for the government, Scott suggested he's done all that he's been asked.

"Last Wednesday I visited the community of Kashechewan. They asked me to provide good water, to provide people to work in the system to make it work. They asked me for long-term not band aid solutions and we're working together with them on all of those things," Scott answered over jeers from the opposition benches.

"That's where I've been."

Stan Louttit, the grand chief for the Mushkegowuk Council responsible for the Kashechewan Reserve, asked why there wasn't quicker action on the parts of both the federal and provincial governments.

"We're shocked, actually, that the governments would allow such a thing in this country, this very rich country," Louttit told CTV's Canada AM early Wednesday. "Hopefully ... governments will wake up and realize the problem in this country in regard to water in our communities."