OTTAWA - The interim leader of the NDP wants the military to move emergency supplies into a northern Ontario reserve in a state of emergency.

Nycole Turmel sent a letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper Wednesday to call for urgent assistance for Attawapiskat First Nation. In the note, she said the housing crisis on the reserve is "dire" because winter is rapidly approaching.

"There is no time to waste," she said.

Turmel and NDP MP Charlie Angus made a visit to the reserve located along the coast of James Bay last week. She says moving supplies into the community will require an "extraordinary level" of co-ordination, which can be facilitated by the Canadian Forces.

The federal government put Attawapiskat under third-party management last week to oversee reserve spending, but the band is not on board with this approach. Chief Theresa Spence ordered a bureaucratic outsider off the reserve on Monday, but the third-party manager is still officially in charge of Attawapiskat's finances.

Aboriginal and Northern Development Minister John Duncan is expected to introduce a plan for the reserve Wednesday afternoon.

"We have been working around the clock on a plan to ensure residents, especially children, have warm, dry places to sleep," said Duncan's spokeswoman Michelle Yao. "Minister Duncan will be outlining this plan later today. We are still committed to working with the band council, and we urge them to be a part of the solution going forward."