KPMG, the company running the City of Yellowknife’s 2023 wildfire response review, held a public engagement session at the city’s multiplex on Wednesday evening.
From 6:30pm till 9pm, KPMG staff took feedback from a selection of around 200 residents who attended.
Cabin Radio offered live coverage of what was said. See below for a speaker-by-speaker account that picks out some highlights.
You can listen to Thursday’s edition of Afternoons at the Cabin, from 12-3pm on Cabin Radio, for some audio clips of what was said. (Here’s where to listen to Cabin Radio on Thursday.) There’ll also be a recap on the Cabin Talks podcast.
If you didn’t make it to the public session, there’s a survey you can fill out until April 12.
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KPMG, a global accounting firm, is tasked with examining how the city handled last summer’s wildfire crisis, the evacuation of Yellowknife, and the subsequent return and recovery process.
KPMG says it will finalize its review of the municipality’s 2023 wildfire response by June this year. The City of Yellowknife has said that review will be made public.
KPMG is wrapping up the event. We'll wrap up this live coverage at the same time.
On Thursday between 12pm and 3pm on Cabin Radio, bite-sized audio clips from this (plus plenty of musical interludes). There'll be a podcast version, too. Thanks for reading.
"Post-evacuation communication, 99-percent thumbs up," says another speaker coming back for a second go. But they describe one family getting a note giving them 30 minutes to leave their hotel, then the Red Cross advising them a flight is leaving in just 30 minutes' time.
The speaker recommends "a more clear and concise way of getting people back ... at the ground level, they kind-of failed at that point."
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"There was no communication outside of English and French ... communication was done primarily in English, and that is a huge issue," says a returning speaker.
Speaker 29 says people experienced "a systems failure" last year. "I do appreciate that these reviews are being done but I do think they should be coordinated, and I'd like to see commitments from all levels of government to work together more closely."
"I found the evacuation extremely stressful ... but that was nothing in comparison to the experience that vulnerable and unhoused, unemployed people experienced," they continue.
"I think it's really important that you talk to the NGOs that work with the vulnerable and the unhoused."
"As a citizen, watching those press conferences on Zoom was the most painful experience of my life," says speaker 28.
Speaker 28 says the city should have spent more time developing a community evacuation plan. Otherwise, they say, "the city itself did a good job. The city is about dogs, ditches and dumps. It's not about fires and evacuations."
"The contractors and a large group of volunteers kind-of took over on the fire lines," says speaker 27, who was heavily involved in some of that work, and who says the disaster management team that showed up helped significantly. (That's Task Force 2, which is discussed here.)
An emailed comment from a resident (I've abridged it slightly):
"I heard clearly, repeatedly each year for many years, that Yellowknife would never completely evacuate. I heard clearly that the plan, regardless of the physical hazard, was to shelter in place. I heard clearly that meant moving people away from the hazard threatening that area: most people could be absorbed into other parts of the city because they would have other places to stay, and the multiplex would be available free of charge to those who did not have other options.
"I also heard clearly and repeatedly for many years that evacuating Yellowknife would lead to waves of crises across the NWT and western Nunavut. The effects on smaller communities were known and discussed candidly.
"I never once heard from the city that “shelter in place” meant that ALL Yellowknifers would move to the multiplex. At some point someone (not the city) started putting this around, and people believed it. I do blame the city for not correcting this misinformation quickly and firmly enough. I believe this misinformation, left unaddressed, contributed to a general public belief that sheltering in place was not a viable option."
"The GNWT issued the evacuation order. If we're looking for a communications improvement this fire season, maybe be a little more collaborative between our levels of government," says speaker 26. "It seemed like there was a lot of not really playing nicely in the sandbox, perhaps."
"My understanding was re-entry was actually done very well," says a person who I'm fairly sure spoke earlier based on their voice. (An inability to recognize faces is a really unfortunate obstacle to contend with as a journalist.)
This speaker notes the virtual impossibility of getting a repatriation flight home if you didn't have a phone or email address.
