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.
1:20 p.m.
NDP
Sheila Malcolmson NDP Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC
That's good work. Thanks for keeping everybody safe.
Are there any comments from the others?
1:20 p.m.
Chief, Lac La Ronge Indian Band
I'll just comment on that. In La Ronge in 2015, we had the RCMP help us. We did forced evacuations. Somebody did challenge us on a forced evacuation, because a lot of people were forced to evacuate. We were told there was no choice, but there were some people who didn't leave and didn't want to leave. After the fires and everything was all settled, we were challenged, and I guess we have no authority to tell people to leave. If people want to stay when there's a threat to the community, it's their choice. As long as they've been warned and told that there's a threat to the community, or there's fire, there's smoke, or there's a general evacuation, then it's their choice to leave or not, as long as they're warned of the dangers.
What we found is that it's really important to have people stay back in the communities, too, to have a team of people looking after the community, looking after the infrastructure, and looking after the pets that might be left.
Also, the firefighters, they can stay back, too, instead of being evacuated. When they're called, they don't have to be sent back from Saskatoon, or Prince Albert, or Regina, or Cold Lake, or wherever they'd been evacuated to.
That's what we found out. We can't force people to evacuate. We did try to have some forms, and we did work with the RCMP and the Canadian rangers. Then we also had our own security we hired just to warn people that they were being evacuated, but then it was almost like a forced evacuation. Now we realize that we can't force people. If they don't want to go, they don't have to go.
1:20 p.m.
NDP
Sheila Malcolmson NDP Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC
The people who chose to stay, were they threatened with the apprehension of their children?
1:20 p.m.
NDP
Sheila Malcolmson NDP Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC
Is there anybody else with experience along those lines?
1:20 p.m.
Grand Chief, Nishnawbe Aski Nation
Our communities are policed by our own police service, the Nishnawbe Aski Police Service. There are protocols with our police service in terms of what their role is or should be in the event of an evacuation, so those are clear with our leadership, with our police service, and other emergency personnel.
1:20 p.m.
Chief, Skeetchestn Indian Band
I'd just like to say, what we'd like to see—our Shuswap communities, our collective communities—is resourcing so we could establish our own emergency preparedness plan and program where we could assist each other. We want to be able to keep our firefighters back in our territories. Our Shuswap firefighters were being sent up north, and they were phoning back home that they were lost. They should have been kept home to fight the fire in the territory they're familiar with.
We had the Kamloops community. I am grateful to them for taking in our community members and non-native people into their powwow arbour and housing them there. The non-native people quit depending on the information from the government and began relying on our information that we were giving out.
I have to give kudos. Once the Red Cross, the firefighters, and the police knew what we were up against, they were behind us 100%.
1:20 p.m.
NDP
Sheila Malcolmson NDP Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC
Thank you for keeping everybody safe. That was a crazy fire in your territory. We were all watching from afar. We are all hoping it never happens to us. Thanks for showing us what can be done.
1:20 p.m.
Conservative
The Vice-Chair Conservative Cathy McLeod
That ends this meeting.
Thank you to all the witnesses. This is our last meeting on both the wildfires and basically firefighting in communities. Hopefully this will result in some important recommendations for government to follow through on.
1:20 p.m.
Chief, Skeetchestn Indian Band
[Witness speaks in Secwepemctsin]
Thank you for giving us the opportunity to tell you what suffering we went through. We have a larger story. Maybe one day we can tell it.
Thank you.