La Ronge Chamber of Commerce’s Wednesday night wildfire meeting. Photo by David Smith
About two dozen people gathered in La Ronge Wednesday evening to discuss suggestions for improvement on how last summer’s wildfires and evacuations were handled.
The forum for business owners was sponsored by the La Ronge and District Chamber of Commerce.
Chamber president Betty Hutchinson says one major complaint is the way Saskatchewan Wildfire Management officials communicated with the public.
“I think one of the concerns and the reason for our meeting this evening is that the business community felt as if they were excluded from decision making throughout the fire and considerations during the fire,” she said.
She adds, “I think communication is a big issue from the fire, people don’t believe that communication was done in an effective manner and that obviously affected decision making of everyone.”
But members also discussed how road closures were handled, training for firefighters and the actions of the RCMP.
Hutchinson says the La Ronge Chamber will collect input from its members and present it to various levels of government, sometime in the new year.
She also says there is still time for people to join the Chamber and be part of the process.
Information and forms can be found at the website http://www.laclarongechamber.ca/