After a several week long evacuation for the City due to wildfires, Yellowknife Council held a meeting to discuss the City of Yellowknife’s after action report.
In the meeting, council received input from Canada Task Force 2 (CTF2) regarding the municipal handling of the evacuation order implemented by the GNWT.
CTF2 discussed numerous points addressing a “Build Back Better” plan for the City which includes several measures the City may wish to take in order to return to normal operations.
Despite CTF2’s plans, representatives from the task force say a complete return to normal is not always in the cards for cities after emergency scenarios.
“Back to regular doesn’t really exist,” CTF2 representative Sue Henry tells council.
“There’s a lot of recovery work that needs to be done in the short term, in the medium term, and in the long term, and it requires a very focused and concentrated effort to make sure that we’re doing that in a strategic way.”
“It isn’t over yet, this is where our hardest work begins,” Henry adds.
According to CTF2, the disaster relief recovery funding process could take years to reach the City and it’s residents to allow a financial recovery.
“All of those invoices, everything that was spent, it takes a lot of time to be able to accumulate those physical invoices, apply through the disaster relief recovery program, and get those funds returned,” CTF2 representative Simon Bradley tells council.
As a result, the City of Yellowknife determined the after action report be further discussed on October 10th, due to numerous concerns brought forward by council.
