Moosonee, Ontario

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Moosonee, Ontario, Canada, is the railhead on James Bay of the Ontario Northland Railway where goods are transferred to barges and aircraft for transport to more northerly communities. Moosonee is not particularly far north (51°N) but is isolated due to its lack of road access to the rest of Ontario. The community was the site of a fur trading post set up in 1903 by Revillon Freres, competitors to the Hudson's Bay Company which later bought out Revillon.

Moosonee is inaccessible by road. The nearest road ends at Otter Rapids which is 92.5 miles south of Moosonee. The main method of access is by Ontario Northland train service: the Little Bear mixed train runs 3 times a week, and the Polar Bear Express tourist train runs 6 times a week in summertime only. There is daily air service to Moosonee from Timmins and from Moosonee to more northern communities. During the summer and early fall shipping season, goods can be transported from Moosonee by barge. During the winter, roads are plowed and maintained on the ice across the Moose River to Moose Factory and to the coastal communities of Fort Albany, Kashechewan and Attawapiskat.

Moosonee was formerly Ontario's only "Development Area" and was governed by a locally elected board subject to formal appointment by the Ontario provincial government It became incorporated as a town in 2000 with an elected mayor and four person council. The population is about 3000 people (by municipal government estimate, the Statistics Canada 2001 census figures for Moosonee are inaccurate due to incomplete enumeration, a common problem with remote communities). More than 80% of the population are native Cree. The number of private dwellings was shown as 297 but this has been revised to 659 and the population was revised from 936 to 1916. Population density per square kilometre is 1.8 in the original 2001 census figure, density using the revised figures would be 3.6 persons per square kilometre of the census subdivision. Land area shown for the census subdivision is 533.82 square kilometres but the actual town site is considerably smaller. For the 2006 census, Statistics Canada sent in a crew of enumerators to avoid the problems that arose in 2001.

Moosonee has two elementary schools, Moosonee Public School and Bishop Belleau Separate School (Roman Catholic)that offer kindergarten through grade eight. Bishop Belleau School also provides a French Language Instructional Unit for children who are entitled to be educated in French. There is a public high school, Northern Lights Secondary, that provides grades nine through twelve. Northern College's Moosonee campus provides some postsecondary programs.

Health services are provided through the Moosonee Clinic of James Bay General Hospital.

Moosonee has a local radio station, CHMO 1450 AM, plus a rebroadcasting facility for CBC Northern Ontario from Greater Sudbury on 1340 AM. CBC Television and TVOntario have rebroadcast transmitters in Moosonee. Most homes subscribe to either cable TV or satellite TV to augment the two locally available channels.