Public sessions begin as part of review of N.W.T. gov't response to 2023 wildfires

A public engagement session was heldin Yellowknife on Tuesdayas part of an independent review of the territorial government's emergency response to last year's wildfires.

In June, the N.W.T. governmenthired a contractor, Transitional Solutions Inc., to conduct the review.

They say as part of the review, they will gather information from the public and pair it with the territorial documents and responses from government officials.

Erica Thomas, CEO of Transitional Solutions Inc., said one of the biggest challenges they'vebeen facing is gaining people's trust,because the public thinks they represent the government.

"I think that there is some fear that we're looking to place blame, and I think also people are afraid to engage with us because they think we're maybe from the government or maybe that their information isn't going to be confidential," Thomas said.

Benjamin Proulx,the director of municipal advisory services at Transitional Solutions Inc., saidtheir report will beto an oversight committee and not the government directly.

"We are hired by the government as an arms-length third party to work independently," Proulx said.

According to the N.W.T. government's website, the three members of the oversight committee Dr. Mike Flannigan, Danielle Trudeauand Todd Orvitz were nominated by the N.W.T.Council of Leaders Secretariat, the standing committee on accountability and oversight, and the territorial government.

"So we will be actually submitting our after-action review to the oversight committee. I assume the government will read the after-action review before it becomes a public document. But my understanding is that it's not a document that will be edited and sanitized," Thomas said.

CBC News reached out to the oversight committee for an interview but did not get a response by the deadline.

Thomas says they examined the N.W.T.'s internal documents as well as their communications with other communities.

She says they conducted workshops with government officials earlier this month and did their first public engagement session on Tuesday.

Some members of the public said there have been many areas of improvement including better communication, a clearer plan for reintegration of government housing services and providingequal per diems to all evacuees.

Thomas said they will be now going to other communities such as Behchok, Dettah, Wekwet, Enterpriseand Fort Simpson.

"We will be visiting 11 different remote communities within the Northwest Territories to do the same thing, to engage with the community and be in the community and understand the stories, understand what happened in 2023," Thomas said.

Thomas saidtheyhave received over250 survey responses from the territoryfor the online surveys so far.

After finishing all the public engagement, they will look through all the documentation and build that report, which will have a set of recommendations for the government to review.

The final report and its findings will be submitted by December.