'It's a nightmare': Tłı̨chǫ gov't scrambles to find evacuees down south

The Tłı̨chǫ Government is scrambling to track down its citizens, who were sent all over western Canada when Yellowknife was evacuated last week.

"We're very worried about our Tłı̨chǫ citizens," Tłı̨chǫ Grand Chief Jackson Lafferty said Tuesday. 

"It's a real issue that our own members were displaced and I guess dispersed outside of our region without us knowing it, and now we're trying to find exactly where they are and what kind of services they have."

Last week, an out-of-control wildfire forced the evacuation of more than 20,000 people from the Northwest Territories capital and the neighbouring communities of Ndilǫ and Dettah.

Among the evacuees were nearly 900 Tłı̨chǫ citizens, according to the Tłı̨chǫ Government.

The Tłı̨chǫ Government is now trying to find them in Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver, Winnipeg, the Yukon and beyond.

A few hundred citizens unaccounted for, says grand chief

Lafferty said about 50 to 60 Tłı̨chǫ citizens have registered as evacuees in Edmonton, and another 90 to 100 have registered in Calgary, but a few hundred others are unaccounted for.

Lafferty said he's frustrated that his government wasn't told where Tłı̨chǫ evacuees would end up.

"[The N.W.T. government] didn't even consider working with us to identify those individuals, or if we could send them to Whatì, Gamètì, Wekweètì or Behchokǫ̀, Rae," he said. "We're very disappointed." 

He added that the Tłı̨chǫ community is particularly worried about its most vulnerable citizens: elders evacuated south without interpreters, patients at Yellowknife's Stanton Territorial Hospital, children in foster care and people who are homeless.

"The homeless, the vulnerable people that were evacuated from Yellowknife, we know a lot of them do not have a proper ID, no money, and a lot of them are dealing with addictions and mental health. We don't know where they are," said Monfwi MLA Jane Weyallon Armstrong, who represents the Tłı̨chǫ region.

"It's a nightmare, and right now a lot of families are worried."

On Wednesday morning, Municipal and Community Affairs Minister Shane Thompson said he's had discussions with Lafferty since the evacuation. At the time, he said, they weren't prioritizing identifying which residents are members of First Nations.

"We didn't reach out to everybody, because at the end of the day, it was about getting everybody out safely," he said.

Identifying evacuees who are homeless a 'difficult process,' says premier

In Tuesday evening's press conference on the territory's wildfire situation, Premier Caroline Cochrane said the government is working to identify N.W.T. residents who are homeless and have addictions, and eventually bring them back to the territory.

She acknowledged that it's going to be a "difficult process."

"We'll have to work with private shelters down south, through the privacy commissioner as well, because people didn't identify, we didn't ask them when they registered, 'Are you homeless?'" she said. 

The Northwest Territories Health and Social Services Authority (NTHSSA) said Stanton in-patients were moved to B.C., and a support line has been set up for family members seeking information about evacuated loved ones who were in hospital.

Spokesperson David Maguire said in an email that the NTHSSA is "actively tracking the location of all children/youth in care and updating for any change," as well as doing daily check-ins with all children and foster families.

He said the health authority is also connecting biological families with their children "wherever possible."

"Many children and youth in care have had contact with their biological families, and we are making this a priority for all those who have yet to have such contacts," said Maguire.

Tłı̨chǫ region residents feel 'abandoned,' says Monfwi MLA

Beyond losing some of its citizens, Tłı̨chǫ communities are also grappling with being cut off from critical goods and services in Yellowknife, the nearest hub for groceries, medical care and other essentials. 

Lafferty said the Tłı̨chǫ Government plans to ship its own groceries up from the South.

Weyallon Armstrong said resources in the Tłı̨chǫ region are limited right now, and residents feel as though they've been "abandoned by the territorial government."

"And the premier is not in the Northwest Territories," she said. "We're left alone to look after our own."