Yellowknife needs ‘about 10 full days of hard rain’ to address wildfires, says N.W.T. premier

That’s the minister of Northern Affairs Dan Vandal he says conversations around funding that effort are still ongoing territory officials said yesterday that about two-thirds of the people in the Northwest Territories have evacuated because of fires some have been out of their homes for over a week Carolyn Cochrane is premier of the

Northwest Territories she is in Edmonton hello premier afternoon Catherine let’s start with the situation in Yellowknife because of course that’s attracted so much attention we know that there has been some encouraging news about the fire in recent days where do we stand now um there’s a couple of fires that are

Hitting Yellowknife one is from betchko our main Highway one is coming from Ingram Trail it’s a road to campsites Etc it goes to the mines through the winter road and the other ones coming from the south uh from data which is a small community outside a Yellowknife indigenous Community they bigger Fire by

Bechiko um is at this point uh I wouldn’t want to stay in control but it’s lessened um we’re still conscious of the other ones but the uh the important thing is that uh although we’ve got a handle on it at any time it can still flare up we’re seeing that with other fires

Depending on the Wind depending on the lack of rain that we’ve been getting so we would need about 10 full days of hard rain to to address the situation in Yellowknife at this time or in the nwt actually 10 full days of rain our brain

Wow uh well I I imagine that that you know the the forecast is not necessarily just going to provide that anytime soon so what how long do you expect that you might be in this position of just sort of hoping and waiting well and that’s a question that most of

The residents want to know it’s uh it’s it’s something that we can’t forecast uh we don’t have control of the weather and and that’s a huge defining Factor we don’t have control of the smoke when the smoke is uh is is not in our favor it’s

Over the city or any of the communities then we can’t find fly the water bombers so depending on the weather depending on the smoke will depend on when uh so at this point it’s not we’re not really given an estimate because it depends uh

If the fires need to be at low risk we need to make sure that there’ll be infrastructure for example all our employees from the power corporations the airports Etc we have essential workers there but uh we’d have to bring in all that staff to make sure that

Things are ready to to operate before we could bring all the residents back home so it’s safe to say that the message to Residents is that this is likely going to take weeks I mean that’s what I take from what you were just saying well again we’re not progress in that we

Are hoping for the best and planning for the worst again Yellowknife has attracted so much attention because there were such an enormous number of people affected this extraordinary evacuation effort but in terms of fires in the rest of the territory where you primarily concerned about right now

But right now it’s focused right now today is on Fort Smith and Hay River uh they’re very close to the community and we are expecting high winds so we’ve been uh not only focusing on Yellowknife and all the other communities but uh there’s a high uh Focus uh today on

Yesterday on on those two communities okay taking into account everything you said about the unpredictability of the situation I still want to further discuss what Minister Vandal well we heard him saying a moment ago about the discussions around the return home I mean he has raised this issue

How long will it take to even just coordinate something like that I imagine that’s a complex effort it’s going to be very complex we have people because we have to evacuate over 20 000 people uh and it just a nail knife alone plus the other communities

And the South slave that have had to evacuate we’ve got people spread throughout Alberta huge thank you to the Alberta Government Manitoba again thank you to them and white horse again thank you and there are residents that have gone to other communities as well um so it’s going to be a huge Endeavor

To bring people back home and to make sure that we coordinate and that everyone is aware of of the procedures to return what about people who unfortunately don’t have a home to return to I’m thinking of those devastating images we saw from from Enterprise what is the

Government able to say or do for them right now well right now everyone is evacuated those communities that have uh places like that will be a priority uh the Home Center Burns will be the priority so we’ll be looking at the various techniques uh examples other years that

We’ve had to evacuate this isn’t the first year for it’s horrible for Hay River they’ve had to evacuate three times already so we tend to uh look at module units that we can bring up for for short-term accommodations housing is an issue in the Northwest Territories we

Don’t have enough housing for people so it we will be looking at alternative housing sources that are temporary that we can bring up until we can actually get people their homes rebuilt again for them and we know that funding money is often regularly a challenge when it comes to

The north so if we talk about the expenses that come along with these fires the other day you said that the Prime Minister um didn’t make a clear commitment vis-a-vis funding now Mr Hydra Sargent was on the program yesterday he told us that you you have nothing to worry about

The federal government will be there how confident do you feel that you’re going to have the money you need going forward well in Spanish when I did talk to the Prime Minister and perhaps I wasn’t clear in the messaging uh the Prime Minister provides his condolences his empathy for

Us uh In fairness we never talked about finances I did tell him the priority for me was to he told me all departments would be working with us and I I got a commitment from the prime minister to please make us a priority to please ensure that every department when we

Reach out is uh as uh as jumps to it and uh makes us a priority don’t put us off for five or ten days we don’t have five or ten days so he did make that commitment that we would be a priority are you worried about money right now

The Northwest Territories is always worried about money we have uh we’re a small jurisdiction we a lot of the programs that somebody might always said is funded per capita um and I’ve used the example many times the small community for example Grand Prairie over 60 000

Um if they get per capita per person um I believe they’re around 60 000 plus um they get funding for 60 000 people I get funded for 45 000 people but I have 33 communities which means Grand Prairie would have one Water Treatment Center maybe six schools

Maybe two hospitals I have 33 community health centers I have 33 minutes for governments I have 33 water treatment plants so my little 45 per capita for 45 000 people I have to stretch it between 33 communities whereas other jurisdictions they get that funding for one community so I wonder given all the

Challenges that you’re talking about that predate this situation and and now the challenges that you are facing people’s homes the scale of the evacuation I mean when you think about the future of the Northwest Territories what worries you the most what worries me the most is uh the evacuations is one climate change

Impacts are happening permafrost melting sea ice melting and honestly what worries me most right now my focus is on the people the evacuees the fires but it also scares me with arctic sovereignty and Antarctic security if we don’t get the infrastructure that we need the supports for people

Um after these evacuations I’m already hearing people especially from the south slave where this is the third time evacuating that they don’t want to be there so if we lose people from the north uh Northwest Territories we only have 45 000 people if we lose more people then I

Worry about what happens to Arctic sovereignty and Arctic safety so this is bigger than just the uh fires and that we’re experiencing now this is about the security of Canada as we move forward I do want to ask you another question before I let you go with the individuals

Affected it’s my understanding that there will only be financial support offered to evacuees who who had to get out through help from the government if you left on your own in your own vehicle you won’t have that financial support can you explain to me why you made that decision

Um so that was uh it’s not a comprehensive decision we’ll hopefully clearing that clarifying that this evening we will be having further discussions with cabinet we haven’t discussed the re-entry we’re just beginning that process so we will be taken into account all the needs of all residents some people that leave bike

Vehicles do have house insurance we’re asking people to look into that some people are are financially better off but we have people that are working for that work at uh you know uh grocery stores and Walmarts that rent places so we need to make sure that we’re

Addressing their needs as well so that will be a decision that comes through cabinet again tomorrow we’ll be discussing that okay uh in closing I mean it’s been a week now what is one moment or one conversation that you have had that you would just

Want the rest of the country to to know about one moment that stands out in your mind see it’s only a week for the other night but it’s been a long way longer for that for other communities I think the message the message right now that I need for Canadians to hear is

That we’re a small jurisdiction our funding uh we don’t we don’t have a lot of money and we have a lot of programs and communities to support with that um we’ve been using United Way for donations and United Way is running out of money so please please anyone that

Can afford to that wants to help evacuees please denote uh donate to United Way we need your financial support we are providing accommodations and meals but people are desperately in need of other things that they’ve left behind so United Way is if you can donate anything every dollar helps

Please consider donating to United Way for the per the fires in Northwest Territories Premier it’s an incredible list when you talk about all the challenges that you have on your mind right now as the leader of the Northwest Territories we appreciate you taking time out of all of that to talk to us

Thank you and thank you for bringing it to national attention Carolyn Cochran is premier of the Northwest Territories

Northwest Territories Premier Caroline Cochrane joins Power & Politics to discuss the status of the wildfires raging in the region and how plans are developing for residents to return.

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