It has now been full year since the majority of the NWT’s population was ordered to evacuate their homes due to the threat of wildfires, and two NWT leaders have shared their thoughts on the past year of wildfire activity.
First to speak with us was Hay River Mayor Kandis Jameson, who shared some of the work being done around her community.
“We’ve done lots of work in trying to reduce the risk. We’ve done tabletop exercises, and just general work to be prepared for any future events and I think we’re in a very good spot. I know the other day we had a ton of smoke in our community and ash falling on us like crazy and people got a little nervous, but I just want to remind everybody that we have the biggest fire break anywhere. Half a million hectares have burned around us, so we’re in a really good place. However there are still a lot of fires burning in the South Slave, and we’re ready to take in any evacuees if necessary, should any community need to evacuate.”
Mayor Jameson added that while she has not heard any official announcement regarding re-foresting the areas that have been burned away, she is hopeful that there are plans in place, and agrees that something should be done to regrow the vegetation.
We were also able to speak with Premier R.J. Simpson, who was able to take us back to the week that the evacuation orders were given, and walk us through his thought process at the time.
“Well when the State of Emergency was called for the Territory, I was actually evacuated in Alberta, and that was already the second time Hay River had been evacuated. I don’t think anyone expected Yellowknife to be evacuated, so I was as surprised as everyone else, and obviously concerned for the safety of everyone in the community, as well as those who would have to travel down south.
“When you that many people, the roads are going to be packed, there’s going to be logistical issues, so there was obviously a lot of concern, but I knew there were people who were working full out to make sure that the situation was as organized as could be. It was a pretty unbelievable event, that’s for sure.”
Premier Simpson also recalled his thoughts on how the return home went for his community.
“When everyone returned home, I was firstly concerned about everyone getting home safely. There were some people who fled and may not have even had the means to return home, so we had to ensure they had the funds to do that. We wanted to make sure that everyone was accounted for, because maybe there were some people who were living on the streets or didn’t have a permanent address, or didn’t have a phone or vehicle, we wanted to make sure they were taken care of.
“It wasn’t like people could return home and the next day we were all back. There was a lot of work to actually get everyone back, and when we came home, we came home to half finished projects that we had started that day and then we had to up and leave, so there was a lot of work to get our houses back in order, and all those little things that people don’t really think about.”
Simpson explained that the GNWT is making use of multiple different After Action Reviews of the previous year to help inform them of what to do with the current wildfire season. However, he added that while those reports are useful, they are still able to get work done before they are finished and released.
“We’ve already learned lessons, and we’ve already implemented changes, so at the start of this fire year, we brought crews on sooner, we brought equipment on sooner, which it turned out we needed because we had a fire in Fort Liard very early in the season. We’ve also spent a lot of effort training additional staff across the GNWT on how they can provide support in the event of an emergency. We trained them in incident management teams, so that when something does happen, we are more nimble, and more able to react quickly.”
Simpson stated that both government workers and NWT Fire crews learned how to better communicate with each other after last year, and feel much more prepared across the board this year.
As for the City of Yellowknife, the Mayor, Council, and City staff have spent the last year working on advancing the City’s ability to prepare for emergencies.
As the temperature and weather conditions have continued to fluctuate greatly over the course of the summer, the City is assuring residents that their safety and well-being is one of the utmost priorities.
The City has taken several major actions to help locals navigate their way through any future wildfire emergencies.
- An After Action Assessment was conducted based on the City’s emergency response to the 2023 wildfire season.
- In alignment with the final report from the After Action Assessment and the 2024 NWT Emergency Plan, the City is updating its Community Emergency Plan and is developing Evacuation and Communications Plans, which will be available on the City’s website once finalized.
- Detailed wildfire content was added to the City’s website to ensure residents can easily access information on the current wildfire status and how to get prepared.
- The City continues to collaborate with local partners, municipalities and the territorial government to ensure processes are aligned and resources are identified and utilized.
- The City has improved the capacity of our Emergency Operations Centre and Emergency preparedness training has been given to City staff.
- Free home and property fire risk assessments remain available to residents until fall 2024 and will be made available each year during wildfire season.
- The City has been working with contractors to remove the piles of vegetation that were generated during creation of the fuel breaks in 2023.
