More than 2,000 residents of two First Nations and a town in northern Manitoba who were forced out by wildfires this summer are returning to their homes, after spending months in hotels during the worst wildfire season the province has seen in decades.
”Everybody is just happy to go back,” said Don McCallum, the chief administrative officer of Marcel Colomb First Nation.
”We always thought that we would be out for three or four weeks. We didn’t think it was going to be the whole damn summer.”
Marcel Colomb, which has been evacuated since early July, and Pukatawgan (also known as Mathias Colomb First Nation), evacuated since late May, have now lifted the two longest-running mandatory evacuation orders in the province. Residents started heading home to the communities in northwestern Manitoba this week.
Meanwhile, on Monday, the Town of Lead Rapids, about 150 kilometres northwest of Thompson, is ending a wildfire evacuation that has been in place since July 8.
McCallum, who has been co-ordinating the evacuation response in Marcel Colomb, said that while the nearly 300 residents from the First Nation had a place in Brandon hotel rooms throughout the summer, evacuees felt isolated and struggled to cope with life in the city for the two and a half months they were out.
”It was extremely stressful,” he said. “They just couldn’t wait to get home.”
The First Nation, approximately 800 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg, was evacuated twice this year. Poor air quality and wildfires forced residents out in May, then again on July 5.
McCallum said the flames have been out for almost a month now, but the fires burned more than 200 hydro poles, leaving the First Nation without power and delaying the return until electricity was restored last week.
”[Manitoba Hydro] revamped the work, because we were initially told we’re supposed to go on Oct. 1, but we said we can’t wait any longer,” he said.
The utility said all structures to bring power back had been repaired late last week.
About 100 residents returned to Marcel Colomb on Tuesday. Dozens more went on a bus on Thursday, and the remaining evacuees are expected to be home by the end of the weekend, McCallum said.
In Pukatawagan, a first group of more than 1,700 evacuees who were in southern Manitoba are expected to return throughout next week.
”It is a bittersweet moment,” said Deputy Chief Kelly Linklater. “We’ve lost about 12 community members since we’ve been evacuated.… People are happy to go back, but obviously there’s a heartbreak of not everybody being able to go home.”
The fly-in community, about 700 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg, made arrangements throughout the evacuation for families to return to say goodbye to loved ones who had died.
But only a few others have been allowed back into the First Nation, including a group of essential workers who went on Monday to help restock the grocery store, clean homes and ensure water was running, Linklater said.
Like Marcel Colomb, Pukatawagan also had to wait for Manitoba Hydro to restore power last week before the evacuation order could be lifted.
But Linklater said Pukatawagan’s leadership still decided to buy generators, after Hydro decided not to supply them and focus on repairs instead, to prevent any delays or pauses in the return.
”We didn’t want to wait around any longer. The strain of being out was getting overwhelming,” Linklater said. “People were separated from the land we grew up in and from families that we haven’t seen all summer.”
About 300 evacuees are also returning to Leaf Rapids next week. The town is planning to lift its evacuation order on Monday and bring a shuttle bus with evacuees on Tuesday, according to a social media post.
Most essential services, including RCMP, health care and town operations, will be at normal capacity.
But Ervin Bighetty, who owns the main grocery store in the town, is worried food might not be on the shelves when evacuees arrive. He says he didn’t get notice of the return with enough time to put in an order for fresh food.
“This is not how I had hoped everybody would be coming home,” he said. “It’s going to be rough, you know, whenever it gets back.”
He is also concerned that spoiled food wasn’t cleaned from fridges in the town ahead of the return of the evacuees, who instead are being offered a kit and advice by public health staff to do the cleanup.
The town’s Facebook post to residents says there will be a reception area for returning residents, where cleaning kits will be available from the Canadian Red Cross. Public Health staff will be available from Tuesday to Thursday to provide advice on things like dealing with spoiled food and cleaning houses, the post said.
But Bighetty would have liked to have seen more support for Leaf Rapids, which has been without a mayor and council since its last council was dissolved in 2019, following the resignations of several members. It’s now run by a provincially appointed administrator.
“I just wish the town administration had worked better to help serve our community,” said Bighetty. “People had a hard time during the evacuation.”
Earlier this month, the province said in a statement it is aware of the challenges returning residents face, and staff are working on supporting them. That includes reviewing the disaster financial assistance program, which provides financial assistance for uninsurable losses, the province said.
According to the province’s latest fire situation report, issued Thursday, the Manitoba Wildfire Service was still responding to 89 active wildfires. There have been 429 fires to date this season, well above the average for this time of year of 365.
