Evidence of meeting #88 for Indigenous and Northern Affairs in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was community.
A recording is available from Parliament.
12:30 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal MaryAnn Mihychuk
The suggestion from the Liberal side is seven minutes for....
You're saying not really; eight minutes?
Cathy.
12:30 p.m.
Conservative
Cathy McLeod Conservative Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC
I know that in the past, Madam Chair, one o'clock has not tended to be a busy time, so there might be an opportunity to find another room for the group that's coming in. I would ask that we try that first.
12:30 p.m.
Liberal
12:30 p.m.
Liberal
Gary Anandasangaree Liberal Scarborough—Rouge Park, ON
Out of respect to the witnesses who are here who have come from afar, I do wonder if it's possible to book another room for the next meeting, for the people who are coming at one o'clock.
12:30 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal MaryAnn Mihychuk
The clerk is going to try to pursue that option. We'll report back.
As we look at presentations right now, do we have concurrence that we're going to encourage the presenters to cut their presentations down to seven or eight minutes? What is the feeling of the members, please? That will give us an opportunity to allow for questioning at five-minute rounds.
Does that seem agreeable? All right.
I see that we have the first panel. At least the first presenters, perhaps, are ready to go.
How about the Lac La Ronge group? Would you like to start? I see that you're prepared. Are you ready, or would you like to....
12:30 p.m.
Chief, Lac La Ronge Indian Band
Good afternoon.
[Witness speaks in Cree]
It's a real honour to be here this morning. I recognize that we're on Algonquin territory.
Madam Chair, honourable committee members, I am thankful for the opportunity to be here this morning to talk about the impacts of the wildfires in northen Saskatchewan.
[ Witness speaks in Cree]
My name is Tammy Cook-Searson. I am an elected member of the Lac La Ronge Indian Band. I have served my community for 20 years as a band councillor, and as chief for the last five terms. I am a fluent Cree speaker. I was raised on the family trapline, and along with my wider community, we continue to rely on our physical and mental and social well-being. We hunt elk, moose, deer. We fish, we trap, and we harvest plants for medicines and food.
Lac La Ronge Indian Band is the largest first nation in Saskatchewan. We are the 10th-largest band in Canada out of 633 first nations. Our population as of last week was 10,911. That's how many band members we have. We are part of Treaty 6. Our treaty was signed on February 11, 1889. We're situated in north central Saskatchewan on the edge of the Precambrian Shield. Usually, our traditional territories are based on how the traplines were separated in the 1930s. Lac La Ronge Indian Band is comprised of six separate communities and 19 reserve lands that cover over 107,000 acres of reserve lands.
Two years ago, during the summer of 2015, our communities experienced an unprecedented number of wildfires that resulted in the largest evacuation effort in Saskatchewan's history. It made national and international news. The fire season began like any other year during the month of May. However, by the first week of June, there were 25 new fires caused by hot weather, dry conditions, and lightning resulted in a fire situation that we had never experienced before.
Given the intensity of the fire and smoke, we began calling states of emergency beginning on June 6. Our first communities impacted were Sikichew Lake and Clam Lake Bridge, and there a family lost their home as a result of the wildfires. From June 6 until July 4, all of our communities were impacted, including the surrounding communities of La Ronge, the town of La Ronge, and the village of Air Ronge. We were evacuating people in different stages, whether it was because of smoke or fire. Nobody returned home until July 22. It was a long drawn-out evacuation, and it was the largest disaster we had ever experienced in our living memory.
I've been asked here to speak as a witness to this event, and I would like to present the concerns that were related to the provincial emergency response and its effect on health and safety of our members. However, before I continue, I want to first acknowledge the efforts of our partners and supporters.
It was truly humbling how everyone came together during our time of need. There were all of the front-line workers and staff, including the firefighters, first responders, RCMP, Saskatchewan wildfire management, Saskatchewan emergency management, Red Cross, emergency social services, Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada, Health Canada, Northern Inter-Tribal Health Authority and Mamawetan Churchill River Health Region, Prince Albert Grand Council and first nations, as well as other teams of volunteers, and many other supporters and stakeholders.
It was an incredibly trying and difficult time for the evacuees, yet our community members, who are known for their resilience, managed to make the most of the situation with the support of many. For this, I am thankful. At the present time, the Northern Inter-tribal Health Authority is finalizing a report that captures first-hand accounts and experiences from key stakeholders. That includes interviews from many of our elected officials, elders, community health resources, and community evacuees, as well as the federal and provincial government agencies' management and responses.
Northern Inter-Tribal Health Authority represents Meadow Lake Tribal Council, Prince Albert Grand Council, Lac La Ronge Indian Band, and Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation. As part of the Northern Inter-Tribal Health Authority, one of the recommendations is there needs to be formalized processes and policies as to how a state of emergency is declared and what is expected and anticipated.
For example, with regard to funding policies, unlike urban or rural municipalities that leverage land tax revenues to support emergency management policies and response activities, we rely on INAC funding through federal funding programs and services. In most cases, our communities don't have the reserve capacity to cover interim expenses related to emergency planning and response, and we are unclear as to how, and how quickly, financial assistance can be accessed from the federal government.
In 2015 we spent over $800,000. We were eventually reimbursed, but it took almost one year and many meetings. When the provincial response was mobilized, it became clear that their capability and capacity were quickly overwhelmed because there were 13,000 evacuees.
We had established emergency response plans and our community leaders were well versed on their roles and responsibilities during this time of crisis, yet they were interacting with provincial responders and there was a lack of defined process and no clear understanding of roles and responsibilities, which made it disorganized and sometimes chaotic. This meant we needed to take action in advance of receiving a clear response from the province. We found that once evacuees began leaving the communities, there were no established processes to track where they were or how to maintain communication with them.
One of the other main concerns was over the lack of defined roles and responsibilities in the area of communications and the coordination of provincial activities. We believe that we could have provided valuable support in these areas. In fact, there were many instances where first nations wanted to support one another in need. Several first nation communities and organizations established support services for evacuees in community centres, gyms, halls, and other facilities to provide food, shelter, clothing, and safe harbour for evacuees where the provincial response had not reached them or was not able to provide for them.
That's why, as a result of the overload of the situation on the Red Cross, we failed to understand why the offer for help, for accommodation, from other first nations was denied. There were no applicable governance policies that described what the requirements were for a community to be approved as a host community. What needs to be done for that change?
During this time the Prince Albert Grand Council filled in the gaps as a critical resource for the province. It established information, services, and a resource centre to feed and support evacuees as well as volunteers. Shelter and food were also provided to 80 wildfire management crew members after their camp was destroyed. This represents one of many examples of first nations' capabilities and capacities.
We also know there is a wealth of certified, skilled, and local first nations expertise, such as first responders, firefighters, nurses, food handlers, and equipment operators who can enhance provincial emergency response capacity.
It was greatly appreciated that the government brought the Canadian Forces to La Ronge during 2015; however, we had many experienced local firefighters who were evacuated and weren't allowed...by the province because they needed to be recertified. At one point the province said that they would be trained and hired, but they ended up waiting day after day, week after week, at the shelters, anxious and frustrated that they weren't called in.
We commend the efforts of the Red Cross and the emergency social services, yet there is room for improvement, change, and collaboration. Different processes might have been considered when understanding that elders felt the evacuation process reminded them that they were taken away to the Indian residential schools and how it triggered traumatic memories from when they were forced onto buses, separated from families, waited in long lines, took instruction from strange authorities, and bunked in congregate shelters.
At the same time, we are thankful for the leadership of Alex Campbell, the regional director general for the first nations and Inuit health branch. He helped us move our elders—
12:40 p.m.
Chief, Lac La Ronge Indian Band
I realize you're in a rush, but this is really important. You're the standing committee, and we rely on you to listen to us and to not rush us, with all due respect.
12:40 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal MaryAnn Mihychuk
We're just asking you to share. We have three groups to present, and we will not give them the same amount of time.
12:40 p.m.
Chief, Lac La Ronge Indian Band
I understand. It's just that we've travelled a long way to be here to share with the committee.
12:40 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal MaryAnn Mihychuk
I know. It's very difficult. You can also submit your brief to us.
12:40 p.m.
Chief, Lac La Ronge Indian Band
I'll just finish my presentation.
12:40 p.m.
Chief, Lac La Ronge Indian Band
Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
We want to thank Alex Campbell, the regional director general for the first nations and Inuit health branch. He helped us move our elders, bigger families, and those with compromised health conditions from the congregate shelters into a better environment.
As I already mentioned, our recommendations on how we can approve these concerns are outlined in the report that is currently being finalized.
As Chief Peter Beatty already has articulated to this committee, one of our top recommendations is that the Province of Saskatchewan work with first nations and other provincial organizations to clarify provincial roles and responsibilities for emergency response activities. We'd like these to be set out in a formal agreement with INAC and first nations and to serve to enhance local first nations' emergency response plans where interaction with the province is required.
12:40 p.m.
Chief, Lac La Ronge Indian Band
We are also asking for a tripartite agreement on a coordinated strategy for quality training that will develop the best firefighters and managers. About 10 to 20 years ago, our firefighters from northern Saskatchewan used to be hired all over the country and the United States—
12:40 p.m.
Chief, Lac La Ronge Indian Band
—and this is something we want to do again.
Before I close—
12:40 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal MaryAnn Mihychuk
We need to move the presentation now. I'm terribly sorry. You can submit your brief. We will read it, and it will be part of the public record. We now must move on. I'm so sorry. I've given you an extra three minutes.
We do need to go on. The second group is waiting to present.
Who wishes to take the next spot?
Please go ahead.
12:45 p.m.
Chief Ronald E. Ignace Chief, Skeetchestn Indian Band
[Witness speaks in Secwepemctsin]
Thank you for honouring me to do a presentation here.
I am Chief Ron Ignace, from the Skeetchestn community, which is part of the Shuswap Nation. My fellow Shuswap chiefs were up on the screen there.
I also want to recognize the owners of this land here that I am on and thank them for giving us the opportunity to talk together.
One of the questions I saw you asking was, what went well during the fire? For us, nothing. My fellow chiefs up there, I believe I heard them say they were invisible. So were we.
I found out by accident, 10 days down the road, that the local authorities had asked the RCMP to go and give a fire emergency notice around all the non-native communities surrounding our reserve, but we were left out of the loop.
I happened to go down to our gas station. There were six RCMP in the store. They were sitting there and I said, “What have we done wrong here?” They said, “Oh no, we are going out and giving notices of fire alerts.” I said, “When did that happen?” They said, “Oh, it's been a few days now.” I immediately turned and went up to our band office. I notified them that there was an alert going on around there, and we decided that.... We were angry because we weren't notified. We weren't brought into the loop. We were invisible, just as the other Shuswap communities were invisible.
We are still invisible today. John Horgan has called in two west coast native people to advise him on the fire in the interior. I have nothing against our west coast people. They are my brothers and sisters. Nonetheless, they weren't anywhere near the fire. We were best able to advise them.
So we took matters into our own hands. We were fortunate that the fire started over in Ashcroft reserve and went to Cache Creek, in that direction, before it came to us, and we had time to prepare.
We took every opportunity. To begin, we set up our own incident commander pre-op program and got organized. We organized all the various departments of our community. Our finance department kept track of all the finances, all the expenditures, and the hours of work that people were doing—community workers, carpenters, truck drivers—to begin amassing all the vehicles and machinery that we needed, the Cats. We even loaded up four-by-four trucks so we could do guerrilla warfare, mobilize and fight the fire with the trucks.
When the sparks were coming down on our non-native communities up the valley, we drove our trucks up there. We put out the fires like that. We engaged all the communities around us, whether they were native or non-native, to come to our meetings. We talked about the fire, planning how we could fight the fire together. We were fortunate.
Once we found out that there was this imminent danger forthcoming, we began—I'll put it in a nice way—reaching out to the RCMP. We began reaching out to the Red Cross, to FNESS, and to the incident commander. There was a big firefighting camp situated in Cache Creek, with 300 firefighters. I went there and introduced myself to the incident commander. I began talking to him and explaining what was happening to us here. We developed relationships. We had our own emergency operation centre established, which we moved out of the danger of the fire, but we maintained our incident commander.
I and 32 other people stayed behind in the community, once we decided to evacuate the community.
I, along with our social workers, our personnel, went to the evacuation centre in Kamloops. I met with all the people in there, introduced them, and told them that our people were coming so they would be aware of them. I told them that we had elders, that we wanted to keep our people together and not scattered all over, and that if there were hotel rooms required for the elders, we would much appreciate that. We developed a great rapport.
The problem was not with those people. We developed a great rapport and a great working relationship once we built two-way bridges. The problem was with the federal and provincial governments. They had signed a MOU, an emergency operation agreement between the federal and provincial governments and the First Nations Leadership Council of B.C.
The First Nations Leadership Council of B.C. is our provincial organization. They're not statutory decision-makers. We are. We make decisions about ourselves. They're just a lobby group for us. But here they were expected to make decisions about things that they knew nothing about. We didn't exist as a result of that. They existed in an ethereal world, so to speak.
I went reaching out, and I found out that the Cache Creek fire camp needed a place to move to. They were looking for a place because the school was starting up in September. I told them to come to my community, my reserve lands, on the highway. We have 5,000 acres of highway frontage land; that's flat land. I invited them over. They came and set up camp on our reserve. I figured, “Wow, we have a good fire insurance here.”
When they came, I, my councillors, and our tribal chair went down there, and we had a welcoming ceremony for them, an honouring ceremony. We did smudging. We did an honour song for them, a welcome song for them. As we finished smudging, I turned around and there was a whole line of firefighters wanting to be smudged as well. We told them about the history of the land, the importance of the land, and the significance of the land.
When I first got there, there were 300 firefighters, individually, looking to fight a fire they knew nothing about. After we finished, I tell you, the atmosphere was transformative. There were 300 firefighters that were fighting like a firefighting team that had a vision and a mission to accomplish. They invited us in. They said, “Come in and work with us.” We did.
One of our guys was with the natural resources department, and we would send him out to the mountains every day to track with GPS exactly where the fire was. They had infrared mapping that gave them an approximation of where the fires were. We would tell them exactly where to put the firebreaks. We built firebreaks all around our reserve. It's about an eight kilometre stretch of reserve boundary. We put in a firebreak of about 12 kilometres, plus others that we put in. We brought in Cats and dozers. We had to straighten and make roads wider so that the larger equipment could get through.
It was amazing. The incident commander came to check out what we were doing. He couldn't believe how organized we were and what equipment and machinery we had. They brought in the people who put fire sprinklers on your house. They came in, and within one day they had all the fire sprinklers on every house, on all our buildings. It was through that type of opening up of relations that we were able to accomplish that.
Mega fires are now a new normal. This fire that we had here is just the beginning. The mother of all fires has yet to come—I tell you that. Climate change adds fuel to wildfire flames. As was told, up there our traditional food sources have already been severely impacted. There are few Secwepemc alternatives to our traditional foods. I'm telling the provincial forestry department that they have to stop managing their fire for fibre. They have to begin managing it for water, and we are going to start using our traditional knowledge of how to manage the forest with fire.
I'm going out to look for Smokey the bear and put his hide up on a wall, because he has it all wrong.
12:55 p.m.
Voices
Oh, oh!