An image from the Pelican Narrows wildfire of 2017. (Facebook/Alton Michel)

By Alison Sandstrom

Call for change

Northern wildfire evacuations need to improve: report

Jun 23, 2020 | 5:38 PM

The authors of a new report are calling for a “made in the North approach” to wildfire evacuations.

Looking at the experiences of Pelican Narrows residents who were evacuated during 2017 fires, the University of Saskatchewan report found provincial evacuation protocols led to the separation of families and hindered the community’s ability to make decisions in its best interests.

Nearly 3,000 people were forced from their homes by blazes in late August and early September of 2017 and sheltered in Prince Albert and Saskatoon.

Families separated

First to be evacuated were the elderly and those with medical conditions. Rigid evacuation protocols necessitated that the aged be among the first to leave, even if many of those individuals did not consider themselves vulnerable, one of the report’s authors, Jim Waldram told paNOW.

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For some study participants, the experience was reminiscent of traumatic memories from their youth, which is reflected in the title of the report Like Residential School All Over Again.

“Families are split up, people often don’t know at the outset where their family members have been taken,” Waldram said. “It’s difficult for them to be in contact with each other to make sure that everybody is safe.”

While, Waldram acknowledged there would always be a need to evacuate those with health conditions first, but he said the decision of who is at risk should be up to residents and their family members and not determined by age.

In some cases, grandparents and Elders ended up in different locations than the rest of their family, which affected the ability of all family members to cope in sometimes unfamiliar cities.

“In these Northern communities the Elders are great sources of resilience, experience and social stability,” Waldram explained. “Current evacuation protocols actually work against those strengths by dividing families.”

Input from Northern communities must be considered

Ultimately, Waldram said Northern communities need to be involved in creating evacuation protocols that make sense for them, as opposed to the top-down approach currently employed by the government.

“Not knowing where they’re going, being put on buses, families being split up, the government telling them what to do,” said Waldram. “The time for that kind of planning is long passed.”

The report also recommends developing hosting capacity in northern Indigenous communities and on First Nation reserve land in northern cities like La Ronge and Prince Albert. Waldram said wildfire evacuees who have been hosted by First Nations in the past, often have more positive experiences than those who are accommodated in cities.

“Even if there’s a different cultural or linguistic group that’s being evacuated, there’s a sensibility about what people need,” he said.

The creation of a permanent evacuation centre on First Nations land, potentially near Prince Albert, should also be explored he said.

Government response

In an email to paNOW, Chad Ryan with the Ministry of Social Services thanked the authors of the report and said the document and its recommendations were being reviewed by the Ministry.

He continued in part:

“We try to keep evacuees as close to their home communities as possible. We also work with community members to develop culturally-appropriate supports and activities. This includes asking the community to appoint community liaisons, who we meet with daily, to provide us guidance on community needs and supports.”

Editor’s note: “Like residential school all over again” was authored by three people, Megan Poole M.A., John Merasty, and James B. Waldram, PhD. Cree translation was provided by Randy Morin.

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alison.sandstrom@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @alisandstrom