Non-profits say they hope Yellowknife takes evacuation recommendations to heart

Non-profit leaders say recommendations from an after-action report on Yellowknife's 2023 wildfire evacuation would go a long way toward fixing the problems they ran into last year — if the city and the N.W.T. government can work together to implement them.

The 130-page review by KPMG, which the city commissioned, focuses on how Yellowknife could improve its response if it ever evacuates again.

It includes 26 recommendations, several of which specifically focused on vulnerable populations.

The city should be thinking about those populations at all stages of evacuation planning, the report said — which didn't happen last year.

It also pointed out a need for better co-ordination between the city and the territory, and suggested a system be developed for them to work with outside organizations — a recommendation that caught the eye of Tony Brushett, the director of the Yellowknife Salvation Army.

"I'm hoping that it's not just something that's a report ... that goes on a bookshelf," he said.

"Give us one person at the city, give us one person at the GNWT that the NGOs can communicate back and forth with, and make it somebody who understands the NGO work."

Brushett said he believes there are many "excellent" recommendations in the report. 

He said a lack of communication was one of the biggest struggles the Salvation Army faced last year. 

Leading up to the evacuation, the organization struggled to get any information at all, he said. They didn't even know if they would be able to keep their shelter open until Aug. 17 — the day after the evacuation order was announced.

They received no support in transporting clients out of the city, he said.

Closer to re-entry, he said they were fielding many requests each day from different government departments and levels of government, all asking for the same information.

Zoe Share, the deputy director of the Yellowknife Women's Society, was responsible for evacuating residents of Spruce Bough transitional housing last summer. She said her organization had a similar experience.

Things were made more difficult because their contacts within governments kept being redeployed to other areas, she added.

Share said the KPMG report addresses a lot of her concerns about the evacuation, and she is "cautiously optimistic" that the recommendations of the report will be implemented. 

"I do feel like we've had some good communication and more advanced planning than in last year for sure, and some support in developing our own plans," she said. "I mean, I think there's only room for improvement from last year."

Brushett and Home Base Yellowknife director Tammy Roberts also said the city and territory have involved them more in emergency planning this year.

Yellowknife Mayor Rebecca Alty said the city has already started implementing many of the report's recommendations, like updating their emergency, evacuation and wildfire protection plans.

She added staff have also gotten extra training in emergency management.

Alty said she also has a meeting planned for later this month with Vince McKay, the territory's Municipal and Community Affairs minister, on how the territory and city can more effectively share responsibilities in future emergencies. 

CBC reached out to the territorial government to ask them if they would work with the city to implement the recommendations.

"The points in this report about jurisdictional confusion during Yellowknife's evacuation last year are valid and is something GNWT staff have actively been working with all local authorities, including the City of Yellowknife, to address," Municipal and Community Affairs spokesperson Laura Busch said in an email.

Busch said department staff will be available to go through Yellowknife's new emergency plan with members of the local emergency management organization once the plan is complete. 

She also said that the KPMG review would be consulted in the territorial government's own review of the 2023 wildfire season. That review will be lead by the Department of Executive and Intergovernmental Affairs.