By Xavier Kataquapit
Forest fires have always been a deep worry for those of us who live in the far north of Ontario. We are surrounded by endless forests and we know full well what it means when these trees start to burn in the peak heat of summer.
I remember a few hot summers in the 1980s, when I was growing up in my home community of Attawapiskat on the James Bay coast, seeing large columns of smoke rising west of our community. It is a frightful thing to know that you are isolated from the world and that fire might reach your home.
I also lived and worked as a writer for several years in Iroquois Falls in northeastern Ontario and I learned from many of their community Elders, including my late partner Mike McGrath’s mother, Emily McGrath, about how this area was devastated by an historic fire in July 1916. Emily’s parents, Margaret and Jack Dunn, arrived in Iroquois in the 1920s and they heard direct accounts of what happened.
Families passed down stories of how the fire sounded like a roar and arrived like a wall of flames that quickly took over and caught everyone by surprise. There were no systems in place at the time to warn people or to manage such an emergency. Many families have their own personal stories about this tremendous firestorm that destroyed entire communities along a 60-kilometre stretch from Cochrane all the way down to Matheson and Ramore. The half a million acre firestorm took an estimated 223 lives.
The memory of this fire still lives on in the name of the small community of Val Gagne, east of Timmins. This area was previously known as Nushka and when this settlement was destroyed, it was rebuilt and renamed Val Gagne in memory of Wilfred ‘Little Father’ Gagne, a Catholic priest who died trying to rescue parishioners from the fire.
This deadly fire, along with other major forest fires from this era, led to the Forest Fires Prevention Act, which is meant to prevent, suppress and manage forest fires and protect people's lives.
This past month, there was a modern repeat of the deadly history of forest fires when the community of Namaygoosisagagun, or Collins First Nation in far northwestern Ontario, was destroyed by flames. First Nation leaders in northern Ontario were unhappy with the provincial and federal governments' response to this disaster. In interviews, Chief Helen Paavola stated that their community didn’t receive as much help or support as they should have leading up to this event and that during the height of the disaster, their people were essentially left on their own to save their lives.
It’s disheartening to know that our provincial and federal governments are willing to prioritize finances and economic riches to develop the so-called Ring of Fire mining region and dedicate years of research, planning and organization to this development, yet spend little to no time in preparing for natural disasters that endanger the lives of the people who live in these same areas. Plenty of experts and spokespeople have pointed out that governments have not done enough over the past few years to prepare for forest fire emergencies or to properly address this danger.
In a Globe and Mail article, Noah Freedman, vice-president of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union local 703 and a ten-year veteran of the provincial wildland fire service, stated that the province's number of fire crews is fewer than what was available decades ago. Compared with past years, fewer fire crews are dealing with forest fires across a massive area that is twice the size of France. Freedman also pointed out that the province lacks aircraft and equipment, giving the example that even though there are nine large water bomber aircraft, two were reported as being grounded for repairs.
First Nation leaders and citizens everywhere can easily see what the different levels of government prioritize in the north.
In a CBC news story, Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler of Nishnawbe-Aski Nation (NAN), commented that "In their haste to extract our resources in our territories, both Ontario and Canada are ignoring the immediate threats our communities are facing because of climate change."
Environmental experts around the world have already pointed out that climate change and global warming will only make events like forest fires worse in the coming decades. Governments should be doing more to protect people in the north instead of spending so much time trying to figure out how to develop mines in remote regions.
Protecting the people and the land should happen first. We shouldn’t wait for another disaster to happen before governments make changes to better deal with a dangerous situation. Our province has already learned from experience what happens when forest fires are not properly managed.
Instead of prioritizing how to make more money from the north for already wealthy mining companies, the government should place greater importance on the lives of the people who call this land home.