It was the worst year in memory for wildfires in Northern Saskatchewan, now the government is doing an in-depth analysis of how the crises was handled and what – if anything – could have been done better.
The government is reaching out to people, industry, community leaders, First Nations, and emergency personnel to gather information on the impact and the outcomes of the fires that forced about 14,000 people from their homes over the summer.
To that end, a public opinion survey has been posted on the Saskatchewan government website. You can find it at www.saskatchewan.ca/haveyoursay.
Government relations minister Jim Reiter says it was an extraordinary year that tested the ability of the government, and that public feedback is important to determine how the well the extremely difficult situation was handled.
“It was a massive evacuation, a size that we have never done before,” he said.
“By and large, I think our officials and the outside agencies involved like the Red Cross did a really good job, but I think when you do something of this magnitude there is always an opportunity to learn and do it better.”
In addition to the survey, government officials will be meeting directly with northern community leaders, industry and those who were on the front lines battling the fires. Reiter says the government wants a broad range of input and that all of the findings will be made public.
“We will probably do what we have been consistently doing when there is a public consultations. We will make submissions available online, some sort of summary of them. We intend to be fully transparent with this,” he said.
The government has also announced that the Northern Municipal Districts have been declared a disaster area. This opens the door for additional coverage for residents, businesses and First Nations that suffered uninsurable losses for things like building fire breaks and other measures to prevent the flames from destroying property.
Those forms are available at the Northern Municipal Services office in La Ronge, or you can get the forms online by emailing the northern municipal services office at hasan.akhtar@gov.sk.ca.
You can also call at 306-425-4325 or toll free at 1-800-663-1555.
Completed forms must be mailed to the Provincial Disaster Assistance Program, P.O. Box 227, Regina, Saskatchewan. S4P 2Z6.
To apply for disaster assistance, all forms must be original signed documents.