Remaining Yellowknife inpatients ‘expected’ to be evacuated today, N.W.T. health minister says

Northwest Territories that’s where we’re going to begin here on Power and politics where fires continue to rage now that yellowknife’s evacuation deadline has passed thousands have fled the capital people are being moved across western Canada to areas of British Columbia and to Alberta others are seeking shelter within the territory

Julie green is the Minister of Health for the Northwest Territories Minister green thank you for joining power and politics today oh you’re very welcome I do have some questions for you Minister Green in your official capacity but I have to begin with your personal situation where are you right now

Well right now I am in the campground at Fort Providence Northwest Territories which is about a three to four hour drive from Yellowknife both South and West and I’m here with uh my family we are in um this holiday trailer and um we we plan to wait things out here

Are you okay is everyone okay there yeah we we are okay I think we have a pretty typical situation here um we have a young person um my daughter who’s 28 who’s with us and then we have an elderly friend with mobility issues uh with us as well and

So I know this has been a hard part of the evacuation people who have mobility issues so we’re we’re taking care of her and I know everybody else is trying to take care of the elders uh to make sure that they have what they need absolutely yours is a common experience you’re

Sharing this with thousands of people in the territory and I’m sure you empathize with them fully but let me your actual evacuation process how did it go well it it went uh it went really well actually um we decided to leave at five o’clock yesterday morning from Yellowknife

Thinking that there would be the least amount of traffic and um the least fire activity so um there were no delays we got right down to the road very thick smoke going from Yellowknife to boundary Creek which is about the first 50 kilometers of the highway and then once

We were through boundary Creek the uh smoke lightened up quite a bit we could see all the burned uh forests around us on each side of the road the devastation um from the earlier phase of this fire and um and then once we were through uh the

Betchiko junction it was blue skies and and it was uh it was a really nice drive no issues well thankfully out of Harm’s Way and there you are in this now quasi official command center for the health Ministry they’re in that camper and let me turn to some of the official

Questions I have for you I want to focus on Stanton territorial hospital it is the largest in the territory the fire is 15 kilometers away from it what are the plans for the patients I understand there are some evacuation plans in order yes that’s correct this afternoon uh we

Expect the rest of the inpatients to be evacuated to the BC Lower Mainland where they will be welcomed into that Health Care system and taken care of so these are from these are patients from medicine obstetrics psychiatric all of the different Wards in the hospital about 80 people all together on a

Military flight this afternoon to the BC Lower Mainland so will anyone or anything be left at the hospital or will it be completely shut down uh the hospital will not be completely shut down there is uh emergency room services available as usual staffed by a combination of our staff Medics uh privately

Um employed Medics who we’ve contracted and Military Medics as well so people who need emergency room Services can still go to Stanton hospital and receive them there if there is a need for Continuing Care people won’t be admitted but they will be medevaced to likely Edmonton in order to receive additional

Services okay hopefully it will go smoothly this uh planned evacuation of the remaining patients because yesterday what we were hearing was patients were supposed to have been flown out but the flight had to be canceled and it was quite dramatic and traumatic for the people involved are you aware of what happened

Well my understanding is that there was a misunderstanding about the status of the military plane that we’re using for this evacuation we thought it was coming they didn’t think we had confirmed our request so there there was that mix up and I do apologize to all the patients

Who were set to go yesterday and then had to return to the hospital for another night okay but in the end on that first military evacuation flight 79 long-term care patients were able to be evacuated as I understand it is that all the long-term patients accounted for now minister

Well um actually the long-term care patients were evacuated earlier in the week and this was uh these were long-term care patients who came from Fort Smith to Hay River and then when pay River went on to an evaction evacuation order both Fort Smith and Hay River long-term care patients came to

Yellowknife so the whole kitten caboodle were removed earlier in the week we have a non-profit long-term care provider Evans and I understand that they have uh relocated their uh their patients as well to uh Alberta and so to the best of my knowledge all the long-term care

Patients have now left and all the supported living patients uh who were in other types of programming they have all left as well and and they were welcomed in Alberta as well so that is good news at this point you did mention that essential Services emergency services are going to remain

At the hospital what about the staff who have to stay behind to provide those kinds of Emergency Services what are you doing to make sure that they’re okay and we’ll be okay at the end when they’re when they’re able to leave yeah we have um flights starting

Tomorrow uh we have a hundred seats available on a flight tomorrow to fly out essential workers to uh Alberta so that they can be reunited with their families or or if they don’t have families just to escape the smoke and and the uh anxiety of being in Yellowknife

Um in the meantime uh I’m I’m pleased to say that the grocery stores have made an effort to stay open a little longer and so there shouldn’t be any problems keeping people come comfortable while they’re also doing this essential work for us which we appreciate so much I I

Understand the anxiety is very high and watching your family go down the highway without you is really traumatic so we appreciate those people who’ve been able to hang on and help us through this period I look forward to sharing some of those stories of Health Care Heroes I’m

Sure we’ll be hearing more as they come to the fore are you in a position right now to think at all long-term minister green are you thinking about the kinds of supports that will be necessary when people start being able to return to Yellowknife well that’s that’s an interesting

Question Heather we just had a preliminary conversation about that this today and I think that the way in which we tried to get people out ahead of time will be bringing people back after the main Crush has returned to Yellowknife so that there isn’t competition for uh

Resources we have all the Staffing in place uh you know whatever needs to be done to ensure the hospital as infrastructure is ready to receive them that all of that is is ready so that I I’m going to say now that they won’t be the first people back but once we’re set

Up and ready they will be welcomed into a fully functioning uh place where the adequate Staffing in and resources to make them comfortable we will definitely have conversations then is there anything else immediate Minister green that I should be learning about any immediate health or medical needs that we haven’t addressed today

Well uh we are still operating the evacuation Center which is not where people register for flights it’s where people uh stay uh overnight if they don’t have other accommodations so for example Heather um the hotels evicted their guests because they were closing so we had uh

At least a couple of those people in the evacuation Center last night along with 16 other people in the evacuation Center but we’re thinking now that the evacuation um of the most vulnerable population without resources is winding down and um they the evacuation Center will close

At 8pm tonight and I I it’s my understanding that there will be some kind of Sheltering in place plan which will take things forward from here Minister green I wish you well personally with your family there and the situation in which you find yourself and of course as you carry out these

Duties looking after the people of the territory thank you for speaking with me today

N.W.T. Health Minister Julie Green says all long-term care and supported living patients have been evacuated from Yellowknife amid the approaching wildfires. However, 80 remaining inpatients from various wards of the largest hospital in the territory are expected to be evacuated on a military flight to B.C. today.

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