‘Completely surrounded': Garden Hill residents evacuate, some stay behind to guard winter road supplies
As of early Saturday afternoon, 1,750 of Garden Hill's roughly 4,000 on-reserve members had been evacuated, said Alex McDougall, interim Grand Chief of Anisininew Okimawin, which represents four Island Lake First Nations. The target was to have an additional 1,000 residents evacuated by end of day.
Except for an increasingly brief winter road season, Garden Hill is accessible only by air, and the evacuation airlifts — with support from the Canadian Armed Forces — are taking place amid a provincewide state of emergency declared earlier this week.
Alex McDougall photo
Heavy smoke is seen in Garden Hill First Nation on Saturday, with the community road on the far right in photo supplied by Alex McDougall, Interim Grand Chief of Anisininew Okimawin.
Speaking by phone from Wasagamack First Nation, just before crossing Island Lake to Garden Hill, McDougall said the fire started in the community's south end, but has since 'completely surrounded' it.
'Our winter road supplies are on the north side of the road, so there are actually men watching the winter road supplies that came in so they don't go up in smoke,' McDougall said, adding that while water bombers were deployed to Garden Hill Friday, they were forced to turn back because of poor visibility. A helicopter with buckets is also being used to slow down the fire, he said.
Like Garden Hill, nearby St. Theresa Point First Nation has also declared a state of emergency due to a separate fire on the south side of the lake, McDougall noted. He expects St. Theresa Point will be preparing their priority evacuation list and getting those residents out — given not just the fire, but the heavy smoke that is affecting the entire Island Lakes region.
The grand chief commended the federal and provincial governments for their quick action in Garden Hill, noting that Premier Wab Kinew and Ian Bushie, the provincial minister of municipal and northern relations, as well as Churchill—Keewatinook Aski MP Rebecca Chartrand have all been in touch.
During a video call Thursday, Chartrand received an up close view of the Garden Hill evacuation. The call was not technically about the wildfires, but rather, the recently passed federal legislation known as Bill C-5, which will allow the fast-tracking of major infrastructure projects — which some Indigenous leaders worry will come at the expense of environmental protections and Indigenous rights.
With his phone camera, McDougall showed Chartrand Garden Hill's terminal, which he said was 'just packed — children and elders on the floor and not enough seating — and the line extending out to the building with Hercules on the tarmac and other small aircraft.'
'I think it was fitting for the federal government to see that because they were talking about C-5,' he said. 'We have been telling governments — science has been telling governments — that climate change is affecting the communities here up North, not just through wildfires, but the winter road season that's getting shorter.'
On Saturday, a provincial spokesperson said the expansion of congregate shelters continues to match the rate of airlifts out of Garden Hill, though Winnipeg's Leila Avenue shelter is nearing capacity.
Alex McDougall photo
Garden Hill Anisininew Nation residents are airlifted to Winnipeg on a Canadian Armed Forces Hercules transport plane Thursday night, while the evacuation of the remote, fly-in community continued.
The next evacuee shelter to open will be the University of Winnipeg Health & RecPlex, while setup of the RBC Convention Centre will begin Sunday. The spokesperson said a contingent from the American Red Cross is arriving Sunday to assist with the convention centre setup.
With an air quality warning in effect in Winnipeg on Saturday, the third day of the Winnipeg Folk Festival went ahead as planned, while other outdoor events, such as Rainbow Stage's matinee performance of Rock of Ages, were cancelled.
Meanwhile, in a live update Saturday morning on CHTM Radio, Thompson Mayor Colleen Smook painted a tentatively positive picture of fire NO061, which is burning north of the city. She said the cloudy and smoky conditions were keeping that fire 'fairly inactive.'
'It's actually a great day for the fire season. The wind's not too high,' she said.
The city issued a pre-alert notice Friday advising residents to prepare for a potential evacuation. It was prompted by a separate fire south of the city, near Cross Lake. In the broadcast, Smook emphasized an evacuation may not be necessary at all. Rather, the pre-alert was to allow residents time to start getting their things prepared, if it was needed.
Smook said firefighters from Mexico, as well as an incident command team from Australia, are scheduled to arrive in Thompson early next week. She asked homeowners not to run their own sprinkler systems in order to conserve water, as well as to remove combustible materials, such as wood, from their yards and get their vehicles fully gassed up, before the need may arise.
In an interview Saturday, Chartrand said Ottawa is keeping a 'close eye' on the fires and is ready to step in if the province needs additional support. The minister of northern and Arctic affairs said she was in constant communication with her federal partners, as well as local leaders — both First Nations and municipal.
Looking towards the future, one where wildfire seasons are set to intensify, Chartrand said she and Eleanor Olszewski, the federal minister of Emergency Management and Community Resilience, are in agreement there's a need to shift from 'crisis response to risk reduction.'
Alex McDougall photo
Wildfires are seen approaching Garden Hill Anisininew Nation in this aerial photo taken Thursday night.
She said they are looking at a number of recommendations to improve wildfire responses, such as developing a fully funded, Indigenous-led emergency management system and the establishment of standards to ensure that the North has more resources to respond to fires, which may mean more training opportunities and emergency preparedness education, like drills.
'But yes, infrastructure is important,' she added. 'We know that we need additional access roads or routes to get people out safely. We saw this in Pukatawagan, for example. So we need to look at fire-smart infrastructure upgrades.'
Chartrand also said that when it comes to Bill C-5, history has shown that Indigenous consent is crucial in order to move major infrastructure projects forward, which is a perspective she and other Indigenous ministers are emphasizing in Ottawa.
marsha.mcleod@freepress.mb.ca
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Marsha McLeodInvestigative reporter
Marsha is an investigative reporter. She joined the Free Press in 2023.
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