Gull Bay First Nation calls on Ontario to extend wildfire evacuation order

Chief and council from Gull Bay First Nation are calling on Ontario to keep with its implementation and evacuation orders after the province claimed wildfires in the area have improved. The First Nation, also known as Kiashke Zaaging Anishinaabek (KZA), is located approximately 180 kilometres north of Thunder Bay and has been under both orders since July 13. Approximately 200 people have evacuated the community as of Monday, according to Chief Wilfred King. On Sunday, the office of Mike Harris, Ontario’s minister of Natural Resources (MNR), had reached out to King by email to advise him that it had assessed the “current wildland fire behaviour, spread potential, and hazards within the affected area,” and the “conditions that led to the implementation order (IO) have improved.” In the email, the ministry wrote it anticipated the order will no longer be required. In response, King released a statement on Monday which detailed a different picture for the area, claiming that as of Monday, the reserve the First Nation is built upon, Gull River 55, remained “surrounded by out-of-control wildfires,” which had been monitored “around the clock” by the Nation since the evacuation order went into effect. “From our perspective,” he wrote, “there has been no consideration given to the community’s operational and individual/collective needs regarding repatriation.” In the statement, King said the wildfires still posed “a dangerous and unacceptable risk to the safety of our members and infrastructure,” and that he and council “strongly urge MNR to keep the IO/EO Orders in place until these fires are controlled.” King added that the fire north to the community, TB36, is “the largest wildfire in Ontario’s history” and was only 20 kilometres away. The wildfire which burnt Collins First Nation, also known as Namaygoosisagagun, traveled approximately 20 kilometres in only one day, he wrote. Fires to the west, which were merging, were approximately 30 kilometres away. “Subject to changing weather patterns, any one or all of these fires could be in our community within a day,” King wrote, adding that all of the nearby fires remained classified as “out of control” by MNR. As well, Forest Fire Info Map, an online resource used to track the fires and their current or potential danger, listed the area the Nation “was most concerned with,” according to King, as an “extreme forest first danger rating.” King said this only increases his apprehensiveness with the decision, as well as “potential timelines going forward.” He added that this was the second time the notion to end the orders has been brought up, the first being in a Teams meeting on July 29th, when MNR suggested lifting the order on July 31. King said Gull Bay and Ontario must “talk together to seek resolution.” “To date, there has not been the creation of an environment in which meaningful consultation and transparent communication has been nurtured,” he wrote. “Without it, there truly cannot be recognition of our joint/individual challenges and how we impact one another.” He said, during these “extraordinary times,” time is valuable, and that he believes Ontario must consider knowledge from Gull Bay while making decisions which could impact the Nation in the future. “If not, then the act of knowledge sharing becomes tokenistic and the time we allocate in gathering/transferring becomes a waste,” King said. “During the last few weeks, we have shared oral evidence with the Crown transparently outlining some of the most challenging circumstances with the hope and understanding that these communications would assist in facilitating a quick/greater understanding by Ontario of KZA — its government, its people and its place.” Continue Reading