Chief Peter Beatty of the PBCN would like the province to change how it handles forest fires. (screenshot/SPSA)

By Susan McNeil

Northern fire suppression

Peter Ballantyne chief calls for changes to fire policy

Aug 14, 2024 | 5:35 PM

The chief of the Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation is asking for the province to change how it handles wildfires as his community once again evacuates because of a nearby forest fire.

Chief Peter Beatty was a wildland firefighter himself at one time and said that when the province changed its tactics is when his community started having to evacuate regularly.

The Arm fire (10,000 hectares) on the northeast side of Deschambeault Lake is less than 10 km from the community, prompting leadership to evacuate people with health conditions.

“The smoke from that is coming into the community and creating problems for those with breathing problems and other conditions,” said Beatty.

A second blaze, the Flanagan Fire is near Sandy Bay and has reached between 11,000 and 13,000 hectares.

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According to the SPSA, crews have been working on the Flanagan fire since July 10 using ground and air crews. They have not managed to contain it yet.

The agency said that Type 1 (four-person) crews made of SPSA seasonal staff and Type 2 (five-person) crews under contract from First Nations along with local Type 3 crews are all being actioned.

Flanagan became a bigger problem on August 4, to Sandy Bay and the SaskPower Island Falls hydro dam after it breached containment lines.

So far this year, the SPSA has hired 541 Type 3 personnel and 713 working days of suppression have been put towards the Flanagan Fire and an extra 263 days have been worked by Type 3s.

More resources were deployed to both fires as they moved towards the community.

A third fire started in another direction several days ago, exacerbating the situation. That fire is not that large yet but can quickly become a concern if it joins with other active fires.

“That’s going to start presenting problems if there’s no action taken,” Beatty said. “This is the time that these fires should be addressed, especially when they’re in close proximity to our reserves and our communities.”

Beatty said that when he was a wildland firefighter in the early 1970s and up until the late 1990s, the goal was to extinguish the fire.

“Today it’s a different scenario. They’re in the business of trying to manage forest fires. And once a forest fire gets going and it gets to a size that is that huge, then there’s no managing that fire,” Beatty said.

The fire will burn most of the soil away and it will take a long time for trees and other flora to regenerate.

For Indigenous communities, people rely on more than just short-term goals of keeping their community intact, they rely on the animals and the plants and berries that grow in the forest to sustain their lives longer term, he said.

“It destroys that, and those medicines won’t come back for years,” he said. “The way that the forest fires are being addressed is not very good for us.”

One or another of their communities evacuates every year.

Right now, 164 community members are being housed in Prince Albert hotels and another 140 people have been sent to Saskatoon. Two people went to Regina.

The decision to evacuate was made on the recommendations of the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency and several health agencies that have jurisdiction in the area.

Prince Albert Grand Council Chief Brian Hardlotte echoed Beatty’s concerns about how fires are being managed. He suggested that the methods have changed to save provinces money fighting fires.

Hardlotte said that what seems to be a ‘let it burn’ policy doesn’t work for the First Nations that are in the line of fire.

“We want to hear that there’s boots on the ground, you know,” he said.

Air attacks are good but they don’t put out fires, Hardlotte said.

“It’s the boots on the ground, Type 3 firefighters, they go in there and mop up the fire.”

From his standpoint, the SPSA should be putting its efforts into complete suppression, not management.

“That’s unacceptable and to me, that’s a betrayal of trust. Our people deserve better.

He pointed to a potential change being looked at in Alberta right now where personnel on the ground are sent out in the early morning and later in the day when fire activity is lower.

“When the fire behaviour acted up in the middle of the day, the hottest part of the day, maybe we pull out the crews but when the evening comes, put the crews back in there and right into the night. That’s the way the fires were put out in the traditional way.”

As of 11 a.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 14, there are 79 active wildfires in Saskatchewan. To date, there have been 475 fires in the province.

Like other provinces and jurisdictions, the SPSA said Saskatchewan is seeing an increase in fire activity. They are reminding the public to avoid at-risk areas and to take all precautions to prevent new fire starts, said the SPSA.

If residents or visitors are travelling, please visit the interactive map at saskpublicsafety.ca, the fires of note, or the highway hotline for details and information.

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susan.mcneil@pattisonmedia.com