City of Yellowknife has new plans for emergencies and evacuations

A year after 2023's unprecedented wildfire evacuation ended in Yellowknife, the city has released an updated community emergency plan, and a new evacuation plan.

The two documents were made public on Tuesday, and are intended to guide the City of Yellowknife's approach to emergency or disaster management. That includes things like catastrophic wildfires, but also other potential risks such as floods, power failures, and telecommunications disruptions.

In a news release, the city says the plans "build on emergency management best practices, engagement with stakeholders, and draw on the recommendations from the KPMG After-Action Assessment of the 2023 Wildfire Response."  

That report from KPMG was presented to the city in July. It included 26 recommendations having to do with co-ordination, public communications, vulnerable populations, emergency operations and evacuation planning.

KPMG found, among other things, that a lack of co-ordinated and clear communications from both the city and the N.W.T. government during the 2023 wildfire emergency led to "significant confusion and stress" for the community. It also found the city did not have a detailed plan for a mass evacuation — a plan KPMG said should have been communicated to the public in advance. 

It also found the city and the territory's plans didn't adequately address the needs of vulnerable people, and the evacuation had "many negative consequences" for them. 

The city's new 44-page community emergency plan replaces an earlier, and shorter, 17-page emergency management plan and "accounts for the lessons learned and subsequent recommendations from the 2023 wildfire season," it reads.

The plan outlines procedures and best practices for the city to prepare for, respond to and recover from an emergency or disaster. It outlines who is responsible for different aspects of emergency management at the city, and how the city will work with different territorial departments and other external organizations during an emergency.

It includes guidance for vulnerable populations and elders, as well as steps that would be taken to improve safety and communication during an evacuation.

The plan is meant to be a "living document," it reads, subject to review at least every five years. It will also be reviewed after any emergency in which the plan is implemented, "to make any necessary improvements or updates."

The plan also draws on a report from earlier this year looking at the territory's vulnerability to different emergencies or disasters. The Northwest Territories Hazard Identification Risk Assessment, released in March, ranks a number of hazards by how likely they are to affect the territory, and how serious the threat might be.

It lists floods and wildfires as the highest-risk hazards throughout the territory.

"Both hazards are also expected to increase in frequency and severity due to climate change, causing more extensive damage to communities in the future," the hazard assessment report reads.

Among the medium-risk hazards considered in the report are power outages, road closures, extreme weather, and hazardous material spills. Earthquakes and space debris pose "negligible" risks to the territory.

Evacuation plan a 'companion document'

The city's new 45-page evacuation plan is meant to be a "companion document" to the emergency plan. It outlines the "structure and framework" for how to manage partial or full evacuations of the city.

"Although there are many commonalities across evacuations and response efforts, each scenario will present unique considerations, resource needs, and operational tasks," the report reads.

"Therefore, this plan is intended to serve as general guidance for the management of evacuations, rather than a definitive process that cannot be deviated from during an emergency."

Last year, the city was criticized by some residents for not clearly communicating its evacuation plan before the city-wide evacuation order was issued.

Former city manager Sheila Bassi-Kellett later said that the city did not have a concrete plan for a full-scale evacuation of the N.W.T. capital before it was forced to put one into action in August 2023.

"We were absolutely ready with our shelter-in-place plan. The whole concept of evacuating the entire city of Yellowknife is not something that's contemplated in our emergency planning, nor actually in the GNWT's [Government of Northwest Territories], either," said Bassi-Kellett in a news conference in September 2023.

'It was a horrible evacuation'

Speaking to CBC News on Wednesday, Tony Brushett, executive director of the Salvation Army in the city, said there were numerous mistakes after the evacuation order was issued last year.

"One hundred per cent, it was a horrible evacuation," he said.

Brushett described how shelter staff scrambled to get clients out of the city in less than 24 hours, meaning some of those people left for the south without needed medications. He also described how some of the city's homeless population ended up in Calgary and it was a "battle" trying to later find them and get them back to the N.W.T.

"The homeless population, even though they come to my shelter every night to sleep and to eat their evening meal and that — they are still responsible for themselves. And that still scares me on some levels," he said.

Still, Brushett said he's mostly pleased with the city's new plans, saying it looks like "on paper, they have been listening to us."

"We'll have 100 to 150 vulnerable people who fall under our care if there's a major catastrophe of any kind. So it certainly looks like here that they are addressing that."

Mayor Rebecca Alty calls the new emergency and evacuation plans a "great read," and encouraged city residents to take a look. She also encouraged people to do their own emergency or disaster planning.

She said the city's new plans are "not a one-and-done thing," and will be reviewed regularly.

"There's a lot of good work though to make these plans more comprehensive and to work with our partners to be more clear on on roles and responsibilities," she said.

"As the years progress, we'll continue to review and refine them."