NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Regions: North Slave Region

Tags: wildfire, communication, community resilience, municipal resources, homelessness, Indigenous governance

Objective(s): During the summer of 2023, wildfires in the Northwest Territories forced the evacuation of over 20,000 people from Yellowknife. Due to climate change, wildfire risk continues to increase and Canadian cities such as Yellowknife must grapple with how to prepare, respond to, and recover from disasters while also prioritizing justice. With that said, the objective is to investigate the question 'what does it mean for a remote/rural city to be resilient to wildfires?'

Project Description: This licence has been issued for the scientific research application No. 5952. During the summer of 2023, wildfires in the Northwest Territories forced the evacuation of over 20,000 people from Yellowknife. Due to climate change, wildfire risk continues to increase and Canadian cities such as Yellowknife must grapple with how to prepare, respond to, and recover from disasters while also prioritizing justice. With that said, what does it mean for a remote/rural city to be resilient to wildfires? Through site visits, interviews, and focus groups with municipal and provincial officials, community-based organizations, and indigenous leaders, students will investigate how the housing crisis and climate change are intertwined, as well as explore how to build more resilient communication infrastructure in Yellowknife. The team will examine and reflect on the emergency response and evacuation that occurred last summer – with a specific focus on organizations working with the precariously housed and otherwise vulnerable populations with an eye on designing improvements to this aspect of the emergency response. It will also research, discuss and advise on communications strategies in the face of emergencies. Additionally, it will be examining the coordination between the City of Yellowknife and surrounding First Nations to understand what worked well and less well toward advising on improving this aspect of emergency response. The team are planning to: *conduct Interviews and focus groups with key stakeholders at the municipality, territorial government, members of DeChinta University, and social service agencies. It is coordinating with the Mayor of Yellowknife's office to arrange these, and will share an interview guide with the Mayor and her team and coordinate the collection of data so that is useful to policy discussion; * conduct a policy analysis of existing and proposed policies to situate the work and recommendations within the existing policy framework and context; and, * engage in a media analysis of the local coverage of the wildfires and emergency response to further situate the work within the local context. The team have been working closely with the mayor of Yellowknife's office. It has developed field visits and research through these discussions which have helped us update and refine the focus based on the current needs of the municipality and the mayor's priorities. It plans to distill the work into white papers and policy briefs which will be shared with the mayor's office. Additionally, the team will discuss the possibility of the co-PIs returning to Yellowknife at a later date to share findings and ask for advice on refining them. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from: June 21 - December 31, 2024