The Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency (SPSA), Prince Albert Grand Council (PAGC), and the Meadow Lake Tribal Council (MLTC) signed a new memorandum of understanding (MOU) Tuesday in order to strengthen their shared commitment to wildfire preparedness, prevention response, and recovery.
“At the end of the day, wildfire doesn’t care whose jurisdiction it’s in,” said PAGC Grand Chief Brian Hardlotte. “We’ve learned a lot from the past wildfire seasons. One lesson is pretty simple—we need to know how we’re going to work together before our communities are under threat.”
Saskatchewan’s wildfire season in 2025 raised concerns about SPSA’s ability to respond to fires. A review conducted by accounting firm, MNP, reported that last year’s wildfire season was the worst in the province’s record, with 514 wildfires burning around 2.9 million hectares and more than 10,000 people evacuated.
The goal of the newly signed agreement is to create a more structured approach to collaboration through regular communication between the SPSA, PAGC, and MTLC leaders before and after each wildfire season, as well as working with the First Nations Wildfire Strategy Working Group.
“We want the knowledge coming from our communities to help shape wildfire planning. That’s why it’s very important to work without elders,” said Hardlotte. “Those relationships need to be built beforehand. When fire season is over, we need to sit down again and talk about what worked and be straight about what didn’t and fix the gaps before the next season.”
Collaborative work will also involve Indigenous Services Canada and the Canadian Forest Service in order to bring federal participation when it comes to identifying priorities and developing suggestions to strengthen wildfire planning and preparedness.
“Our communities have experienced firsthand the impacts of wildfires,” said MLTC Chief Jeremy Norman. “By strengthening our partnership with the SPSA, we are taking an important step toward improving preparedness, enhancing communication, and building resilience for future wildfire seasons.”
Norman said he hopes that by consistent communication within each group and community, response time to potential and ongoing fires are handled quicker.
“You see a lightning strike or you see something smoldering near your community, we’re hoping to attack it right away before it gets too big,” he explained. “All our communities have crews and to have that ability to send them out right away when the fire is small, I think that could be a game changer to utilize what we have to its fullest.
A forum will be provided to share local and traditional knowledge, community experience, and lessons learned from previous wildfire events. Additionally, it will develop recommendations and feedback to support improvements to wildfire strategy, operational planning, and community initiatives.
“This agreement reflects our commitment to working alongside First Nations leadership to strengthen wildfire preparedness, improve response efforts, and support long-term community resilience,” said SPSA President and Fire Commissioner Marlo Pritchard.
Pritchard added that he had met with leaders of PAGC and MLTC prior to the 2025 season in order to solidify community within each group.
“This partnership has been going on for a long time. But one of the outcomes that we’re hoping on at the MOU and that we would have been working in the off season and throughout this year is around enhanced communication using our provincial emergency operations centre as coordination,” he said. “We’re still working through that. You would have seen on our social media a much broader presence. We are hoping to enhance that because we know it’s another opportunity to reach into both First Nations and non-First Nations communities.”
The Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency (SPSA), Prince Albert Grand Council (PAGC), and the Meadow Lake Tribal Council (MLTC) recognize the MOU as a foundation to work together throughout wildfire management cycle, which includes prevention, preparedness, mitigation, response, and recovery, while ensuring First Nations priorities, experience, and knowledge are part of that work.
