Pukatawagan residents yearn for return home after nearly 2 months of evacuation
'It's been hard on everyone,' Coun. Brenda Dumas says
Thousands of residents forced out of Mathias Colomb Cree Nation by wildfires are growing anxious to return home while they try to stay connected, safe and busy, as the evacuation of their northern Manitoba community continues to drag out.
The remote, fly-in First Nation, which is about 700 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg and is also known as Pukatawagan, was put under a mandatory evacuation order after an out-of-control wildfire spread to within about a kilometre of the community at the end of May.
For some residents, it's now been almost two months since they last set foot inside their homes, during one of the longest mandatory evacuations in Manitoba this wildfire season.
"It's been hard on everyone," Pukatawagan Coun. Brenda Dumas told CBC News. "We all want to go back home to our homelands, where we could be free and enjoy each other's company and [have] no worries."
Residents were relocated throughout Manitoba — and as hotel vacancies started running low in the province, some went to Niagara Falls, Ont.
But in the effort to house everyone, extended families were separated. And even within the same city, the close-knit community has been scattered enough to make some residents feel stranded, said Ashley Charlette, an evacuee from Pukatawagan.
Some have also struggled to adapt to living in a city setting, since for many evacuees, life on the reserve is all they've experienced, she said.
"A lot of us have grown up in outdoor settings, fishing, hunting … and being in a concrete jungle is just not home," said Charlette, who has been staying in Niagara Falls since June 2.
"A lot of people just want this to be over, we want to be safe and reconnected with our families."
With the community separated, it's also been challenging for Pukatawagan leadership to co-ordinate activities for evacuees. After eight weeks, families are having a hard time finding ways to keep busy, Coun. Dumas said.
Some cities hosting evacuees have offered tickets to attend events, but Dumas said those ran out fast and weren't enough for everyone who was evacuated.
Charlette said activities for her kids, who are three and 10, are expensive. And spending days in a hotel room where routine tasks that offer comfort, like cooking, are off-limits, can sometimes be a lonely and anxious experience.
"We're here supporting each other, trying to be parents, be guardians," Charlette said. "But there's a lot of things happening."
Issues like dietary restrictions limiting food options, reports of racism on the street and oversurveillance by security guards at congregate shelters have also made the evacuation more difficult for some, Coun. Dumas said.
"They don't really want to be around here," she said. "They really want to go home."
Weeks to go before return
As of Thursday, the order to stay out of Pukatawagan remains in place and the community is planning to start bringing residents back toward the end of August.
The wildfire that forced Pukatawagan residents out of their homes has receded — but Dumas said there's a new blaze burning out of control close enough to the community that if winds change, it could put the community in danger again.
Power in the community also needs to be restored before evacuees can return, Dumas said. However, wildfires damaged about 100 poles, power lines and other equipment Manitoba Hydro uses to service Pukatawagan, leaving the community in the dark.
A spokesperson for the Crown corporation said restoration work has begun, but there is no estimate of when power will be back — in part because of how difficult it is to access the terrain where the main transmission line is.
Pukatawagan is also waiting for the railway that serves as the community's main supply line to be up and running again, Dumas said.
Arctic Gateway Group said in a statement that operations at Keewatin Railway Company, the spur line that runs between Sherritt Junction and Lynn Lake passing through Pukatawagan, are limited to transporting supplies and fuel critical to restoring power at the moment.
Life back in Pukatawagan
John Colomb has been staying in touch with family who were evacuated to Niagara Falls through phone calls and Facebook messages. Meanwhile, he and his wife, Sheila, stayed back in Pukatawagan to help keep the community clean and safe.
But Colomb is concerned about his relatives going missing or getting hurt on the streets because they aren't used to the city lifestyle. He also worries about residents being exposed to drugs they would otherwise have limited access to in Pukatawagan.
"Something needs to be done," he said. "The process needs to be moved a little faster to save our community members from the evils of the streets."
After the last wildfire evacuation in 2022, Colomb remembers some people returned home with addictions that turned into violence and carelessness — and he is afraid that will happen again.
WATCH | Military operation flies people out of Pukatawagan:
"They don't realize that they put community members in danger by associating with the crazy part of street life," he said.
In Pukatawagan, Colomb has been busy working as a security guard in a crew that patrols the community twice a day to ensure homes are locked and watch for trespassing or break-ins. They also cover tasks like feeding pets left behind and cleaning food out of fridges.
"From the last evacuation, we're in better condition," he said.
Colomb said the fire damaged two cabins and burnt down a saw mill in Pukatawagan. A shift of winds has helped keep the flames far enough away, while he and other volunteers have helped fire crews put hotspots out near the community by driving a truck and pouring water out of jugs.
But the lack of adequate equipment available in Pukatawagan to control the fire needs to be addressed, he said.
"From my perspective … it feels the lives in these communities don't matter," Colomb said, adding he'd like to see residents trained to deal with evacuations, fire control and survival without power.
"We're still here, our community [is] still standing," he said. "We're not going to stop fighting."
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