Organized chaos for nearly 6,000 wildfire evacuees

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This article was published 06/09/2017 (2964 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

First Nations leaders called on the province to issue a state of emergency Wednesday as harrowing stories surfaced about how northern wildfire evacuations occurred, how long it took for rescue planes to land and the conditions inside Canadian Red Cross shelters in Winnipeg.

“It appears to me that money is taking precedence over our people, their lives and their health and safety,” Wasagamack Chief Alex McDougall said at a packed news conference at a downtown hotel room. He listed deteriorating conditions on northern First Nations while evacuees waited days for planes to bring them to safety, and then conditions they’ve endured since being relocated to Winnipeg and Brandon.

Nearly 6,000 evacuees from northern Manitoba First Nations have fled wildfires in the last three weeks, more than 5,000 of them in the last 10 days.

Cases of the mumps, a contagious disease, among evacuees are now being reported at the WSF Soccer North complex on Leila Avenue. The second Winnipeg shelter, the RBC Convention Centre, is being closed today.

The Canadian Red Cross said as hundreds of wildfire evacuees from Poplar River First Nation slowly return home this week, the hotel rooms they were using are being turned over to evacuees from the three Island Lake communities, including Wasagamack, Garden Hill and St. Theresa Point.

The Red Cross referred calls about the mumps to the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority. A provincial health spokeswoman said with nearly 900 cases confirmed in Manitoba in the last year, the province is in the middle of a mumps outbreak. “It’s not a surprise; cases have been circulating throughout the province. And it won’t be specific to the evacuees or the shelters.” There were no numbers available from health authorities on how many cases there are.

Manitoba First Nations leaders spoke passionately at Wednesday’s news conference, signalling they were moving toward a more aggressive advocacy position for evacuees.

“This is not an easy time,” said Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak Grand Chief Sheila North Wilson.

“I understand it could be much worse than it is but at the same time, it could be much better,” she said, commending the Red Cross and the help from both levels of government.

But she said the emergency highlights long-standing grievances for remote communities such as Wasagamack. For decades, the community has tried to get Ottawa to put in an airstrip and a health facility.

“In this day and age, it’s not acceptable they had to leave in such a hurry in the way they did. It’s a miracle there aren’t (more) tragedies. The poor woman who miscarried, that should alarm all of Canada,” said North Wilson, referring to reports a 16-year-old miscarried when she was relocated from Wasagamack last week.

Arlen Dumas, grand chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, said he’s expressed his disappointment to both levels of government. “Too many bureaucratic hoops are need to be jumped through to bring in water bombers to fight the fire,” he said. “Manitoba Hydro wanted to protect their infrastructure. My issue was, what about the people?” 

Assembly of First Nations Manitoba vice-chief Kevin Hart called conditions in Island Lake “Third World.” It would have helped if there were firefighters on the ground, he said.

Liberal MLA Judy Klassen said she’s been calling Premier Brian Pallister’s office and the federal government, urging them to call a state of emergency all week. The MLA represents the massive northern riding of Keewatinook that includes Churchill, Gillam and more than a dozen First Nations, including the Island Lake region.

“I want hotel rooms so our people can be treated like any other Manitobans would be. Showers they can access, sinks, beds… I need to get elders lying on cots with medical conditions with open wounds… into hotel rooms. We need the hotel spaces for our prenatal moms,” Klassen said.

With the exception of Liberal leadership candidate Cindy Lamoureux and Pallister, who toured the RBC Convention Centre last week with North Wilson and Dumas, Klassen said she didn’t know of any MLAs who have visited or worked in the shelters since they were set up.

“I shouldn’t have to explain what my people are going through,” Klassen said. “Premier Pallister. Brian. I work with you everyday when we’re in session. You have to believe me. You have to take my word for it. My people are still in cots. I want that state of emergency declared and I know it has to come from you,” Klassen said. 

Wasagamack’s chief and one of its councillors on Wednesday recounted the terrifying evacuation: a firestorm advancing, a twister that ripped shingles off roofs and a column of thick black smoke that rained embers and pine needles on frightened evacuees, plus the flotilla of 16-foot motor boats that ferried them across the water. All of that could have been avoided, the chief said, had Ottawa acted on the community’s calls to build its own airstrip. And medical care would have been available if the community had a health centre, he said.

 Chief McDougall also joked it looked like his people were “eating Brandon out of food,” but the remark was intended to lift the sting out of incidents that have embarrassed evacuees. They’re given separate menus in restaurants and have separate lineups in Walmart to use emergency vouchers for clothing. 

“It has been through the grace of God and our creator that more lives were not lost in the crisis and the evacuation,” McDougall said. “And this crisis is not over yet.”

alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca