A 90-second summary of the NWT’s 2023 after-action review

The NWT’s 2023 wildfire season after-action review – which came out on Wednesday – contains dozens of recommendations.

Read our full report here. On this page, you can get a summary that’ll only take you a minute and a half to read.

The big news? The reviewers think the NWT needs its own year-round emergency management agency and Indigenous governments need to be full partners in that.

There needs to be more training for elected officials and key staff in the Incident Command System, or ICS, which is a nationwide standard for communicating internally and making decisions during emergencies.

NWT Alert – the system used for emergency messages to residents in the territory – can be improved with clearer wording, better instructions and care taken to ensure it is the central point for alerting people.

Someone needs to have an updated list of who should be essential ahead of any emergency. Vulnerable people need better supports. Communication with the public needs to improve. And importantly, the GNWT needs to embark on a years-long mission to regain public trust after 2023.

Better training, more exercises and better partnerships with other jurisdictions are needed, as are ways for residents to better understand insurance and recovery options. The GNWT should have a clear plan for what happens the next time Yellowknife shuts down.

There are many more recommendations. Much of the report documents the confusion, lack of planning and trauma that many people who lived through that wildfire summer will immediately recognize.

More: Read internal emails from Yellowknife’s evacuation

The report was created by a consultancy firm over the past year, using feedback from hundreds of people as well as a study of many documents related to the fires and evacuations.

The GNWT said it welcomed the report and would issue a formal response later in the summer. The premier said many of the recommendations align with work already taking place.