Valerie G. Barnes Connell Jordan
Daily Herald
While some time has passed since we were evacuated from our homes here in central northern Saskatchewan, the threat remains in other parts of the north.
It hasn’t gone away. We sometimes wake up to sunshine, but more often to thick smoke, which means we can’t even see the lake when we live on it.
We have a garden at the airport we visit often. My attention is always drawn to the helicopters with buckets attached going off to look after a “hot spot” or two several times a day.
And we hear of the trauma of people in other communities across the north, now more focused on the westside.
Some areas are working on recovery after fire has ripped through their communities, some losing homes and cabins, which are sacred spaces for them and their families.
One couple I know spent 10 years rebuilding their cabin, which was lost to the 2015 fire, only to lose it again.
The constant smoke, or planes going to and from, and other myriad of wildfire-related activity, is a reminder and for some of us a cause for tension.
It amazed me in 2017, when I planned a trip to Victoria. I was so filled with anxiety some time before the trip.
I even had pains in my chest, which I had never had before. I couldn’t understand what was going on, because I wasn’t sick or anything.
Suddenly, I realized, it was the evacuation. I was very afraid I would not get home again. It was terrifying!
Although it has dissipated to some degree, I still have some tension every time I go away from home.
It’s also a wakeup call to notice that our government needs to step up and make significant changes to how they deal with wildfires.
Now, we have a Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency (SPSA) contingent set up in town. It was set up after we came home from the evacuation in June.
All across the north we hear people calling for the end to how the government deals with wildfires.
Last summer I was on conference calls with northern leaders pleading with government leaders to make changes so their people did not have to evacuate, and now it’s losing homes!
We still have a government that sits in Regina and decides what should be happening in the north, with no communication, blocked ears and eyes, to listen to the people who live here, and have for a very long time.
The trauma of vacating one’s home is something that buries itself in your core being and stays there for a long time. Having said that, I know, the forest needs to burn to be healthy. And, I can see areas of forest that have needed to burn, but, it should not be at the expense of people’s health and wellbeing.
We, and people in other parts of the country, have spent most of the summer out of our homes and in smoke. It’s hard on people’s health and the environment around us.
I am also concerned about this Bill C-5, which I hear may impact First Nation people, but was passed and then a Summit was held with First Nation people.
That is backward. Why would you not have the Summit first, when Canada has signed on to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP)? This makes no sense in any good way!!!
Everything around us is calling out to change our ways, look after the environment, show it along with each other – care, compassion, respect. Please start now for the sake of our children, and those yet to come!
Valerie G. Barnes Connell Jordan is a writer and journalist who lives and works in La Ronge.
