NWT’s 2023 wildfire review calls for new approach to emergencies

The Northwest Territories must create a dedicated emergency management agency and make Indigenous governments full partners in that management, a major review of the 2023 wildfire season has declared.

The review, by contractor Transitional Solutions Inc (TSI), took a year to complete and was released on Wednesday afternoon.

More: Get a 90-second summary of the review’s findings
More: Read internal emails from Yellowknife’s evacuation

“Communities were resilient,” the review stated, “but lacked the systemic support from the GNWT to maintain it.”

While the review celebrates some successes, by far the majority of its 164 pages are dedicated to what went wrong and what could be improved.

The review’s authors said they looked through hundreds of documents, heard from some 250 people, held 13 events in communities and spoke with various levels of government in reaching their conclusions.

More than 30 recommendations are made to the GNWT. The territorial government, in a written statement on Wednesday, said it had “already taken action in many of the areas identified in the report [and] will now take the time to study all of the recommendations closely.”

Communities minister Vince McKay stated the review “offers a clear, honest look at how the GNWT and our partners responded.” McKay stated many findings “reinforce the direction we’ve already taken.”

Requests to arrange interviews with ministers about the review did not receive a reply. In its statement, the GNWT said it would “reserve further comment” until it has prepared its own formal response for release later in the summer.

New agency needed

Creating a dedicated territorial emergency management agency is one of the biggest recommendations. TSI says that should be pursued immediately.

The existing system – local, regional and territorial emergency management organizations that pop up when needed – “proved ineffective during a large-scale disaster,” TSI concluded.

People had trouble understanding how the local, regional and territorial groups fit together, causing confusion, while they all “lacked a coordinated command,” a summary states. That resulted in “duplication, delays, and blurred responsibilities.”

At the same time, a territorial emergency plan drawn up in 2018 – one that TSI said “should have worked,” though it lacked detail – ended up making little difference because “very few people within the GNWT and throughout local governments” knew about it.

TSI said a dedicated emergency management agency “is essential to reduce fragmentation and provide comprehensive, wraparound support.”

“With budgetary and organizational autonomy and strategic clarity, emergency management can evolve into a core, all-hazards, year-round function,” TSI wrote, “supported by specialized staff, standardized tools and processes, and routinely exercised plans.”

Other jurisdictions already have something like this. The review points the NWT to Alberta as an example of a province with a year-round emergency management agency.

Immense pressure, prolonged periods

Most residents who lived through the NWT’s 2023 wildfire season won’t need to read the report to know much of what it contains.

Many of the problems identified – confusion, the absence of plans, ineffective communication – were clear to people experiencing the situation at the time.

More: Read TSI’s review in full

People had to register multiple times over for different services. Help for vulnerable people was intermittent. Key GNWT departments “did not have tested plans for operational continuity during displacements.”

“It felt like every system we relied on was breaking down, one after another,” one municipal leader was quoted as saying. (Quotes from people who took part in the review were provided without names attached.)

While those are familiar issues, the review tries to dig deeper into the underlying reasons for those failures.

TSI found elected officials and important staff sometimes didn’t have the right training for this kind of scenario, resulting in “inconsistent decision-making” and a slower response than was needed.

People within government, the review points out, were usually well aware of these shortcomings and doing their best with the tools and training they had.

“We were flying blind. Many of us were doing jobs we’d never been trained for,” one regional emergency management worker was quoted as saying. “There was no one else.”

“Many key positions remained unfilled or were staffed by individuals without sufficient training or experience, leaving responders to prepare for and operate under immense pressure for prolonged periods,” TSI wrote.

“The reliance on informal personal networks rather than formalized processes further strained operations, creating inconsistencies and inefficiencies in critical decision-making.

“Jurisdictional tensions, particularly between territorial and municipal authorities, compounded these challenges, emphasizing the need for more explicit pre-defined roles and collaborative frameworks.”

The review frequently returns to the concept of an incident command system, or ICS.

Having a robust and consistent ICS in place is critical, the review asserted, and the territory lacked this. Fewer than half of the people in “ICS roles” during the fires appeared to have had appropriate training.

“The lack of organizational depth exposed responders to burnout and operational delays, while gaps in business continuity planning resulted in leadership attrition at critical moments,” the review found.

‘Deep distrust’ of GNWT

TSI’s review seeks to address the problems by explaining what the GNWT can now do to fix the issues.

For example, building ICS into day-to-day GNWT operations is a key recommendation. “Regular exposure to ICS outside emergency contexts builds familiarity and improves operational efficiency during crises,” the review stated.

A major recommendation is that Indigenous governments “be formally integrated as equal partners in emergency management,” in part through changing legislation.

Some Indigenous governments had been furious, at the height of the crisis in August 2023, that Yellowknife’s evacuation was triggered without apparent consideration of smaller communities that relied on the territorial capital.

“We’re still here. We’re still living in the North. We need those essential services,” Tłı̨chǫ Grand Chief Jackson Lafferty told Cabin Radio at the time, “and the GNWT just picked up and went.”

Overall, TSI found, many people “expressed feelings of abandonment, confusion and long-term trauma from the events” of 2023, no matter the lens through which they experienced that summer.

“This was partly due to a lack of clarity in communication, limited transparency in decision-making and response times that exceeded operational expectations in some regions,” TSI wrote.

Communication is one example of where trust broke down.

Confidential information was “frequently” shared inappropriately, which TSI said contributed to “deep distrust” of the GNWT, as did instances of political interference such as elected officials stepping outside chains of command to get updates or make decisions.

Communications to the public were “siloed, sometimes contradictory, delayed, and often not trusted by community members.” (TSI made an exception for NWT Fire’s updates, saying those had a “positive reception.”)

Meanwhile, the evacuation of Yellowknife made disparities clear. People with cars left while those without had to join an hours-long line for an airlift. TSI said there were “instances where the perception of privilege and access to confidential information dictated evacuation priorities.”

Yellowknife evacuation ‘never considered’

Finding room for praise, TSI said individuals had displayed “dedication and heroism” throughout the crises of 2023. GNWT staff, residents and NGOs “assumed roles beyond their mandates to ensure continued service and evacuation support.”

“Many were directly affected by the fires and subsequent evacuations and yet continued to serve others,” the review’s authors noted.

Those authors said they were encouraged that some operational shifts since 2023 showed the GNWT had “a willingness and eagerness to learn and adapt.

But they added the territory now has “a generational opportunity to lead in redefining emergency readiness for the North.”

The list of items to be addressed is long.

Mutual aid agreements with other jurisdictions need better wording, TSI said. Many community plans for this kind of disaster hadn’t been updated in a long time – including at least one last refreshed in 2011. People needed to be helped to plan for lengthy evacuations, not just a day or two.

There was no consensus on what constituted an essential service, TSI observed, a concern many people and businesses had voiced at the time.

One of the biggest issues? The potential evacuation of Yellowknife was “never considered in risk assessments.” Nor was a scenario where the majority of the NWT’s population had been forced to leave home.

“Overall, while elements of pre-planning were present, they were not scaled, practiced, or sufficiently integrated across jurisdictions,” TSI wrote.

“The 2023 wildfire season showed that without coordinated and regularly validated plans – including clear evacuation criteria, mutual aid staging processes, and departmental continuity strategies – the system defaulted to improvisation at critical moments.

“Moving forward, the GNWT will need to ensure that emergency plans and standard operating procedures are not only created, but shared, exercised, and embedded into the organizational culture across all levels of government.”

What to fix first

The GNWT must now rebuild trust with “clarity, consistency, and cultural competency,” the review stated.

“Plans must be exercised, understood, and integrated into day-to-day governance, including collaborating with NGO partners.

“From alerts to evacuations to recovery, the GNWT emergency management system must function as a cohesive whole with clear roles, data sharing, and wraparound support.”

A year from now, the GNWT should have engaged Indigenous governments as full partners in emergency management, TSI recommended.

Within two years, elected officials and emergency managers should have been given better training, and a better plan to help vulnerable people should be in place.

Within four years, the GNWT should enact legislation that requires compliance with emergency management best practices, and introduced “trauma-informed mental health models” to the way emergencies are handled.

Erica Thomas, TSI’s chief executive officer, said something that had been missing after 2023’s evacuations was a “crisis debrief and the ability [for residents] to share their stories.” (Yellowknife did hold a public meeting that served that function to a limited extent.)

“There were a number of times where we spoke with people in literal tears, saying ‘I needed this. This is the first time I’ve actually shared this story where I felt like it would be impactful and make changes,'” Thomas said at a Wednesday briefing with reporters.

Over the longer term, TSI said, the GNWT should be holding regular exercises and ensuring residents are provided with better “insurance literacy and disaster recovery options.” Many residents found insurance too expensive, too complex or simply could not find an insurer at all, the review found.

“Building trust,” TSI concluded, “will be the most challenging outcome of this report.”

GNWT will draw up action plan

In the GNWT’s Wednesday statement, Premier RJ Simpson said he understood “how disruptive and distressing” the summer of 2023 had been for residents. A “whole-of-government action plan” is promised.

“This review reflects what people lived through and the lessons we need to take forward,” Simpson stated.

“I also want to recognize GNWT staff who worked through incredibly challenging circumstances during those times. Your efforts helped keep people safe, and your experience will continue to shape how we respond going forward.

“The GNWT has already taken action in many of the areas identified in the report. We will now take the time to study all of the recommendations closely, and we’ll continue working in partnership with Indigenous and community governments to strengthen emergency preparedness and response in the territory.”