Northern airlines pivot to help with evacuations, food supply and wildfire operations
CBC
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The N.W.T. government says it's working to ensure food and other key goods keep flowing to remote communities amid the ongoing wildfires and evacuations of key regional hubs.
Wildfires have triggered evacuation orders in the capital city of Yellowknife, as well as the communities of Ndilo, Dettah, Fort Smith, Enterprise, Hay River, Kátł'odeeche First Nation, Kakisa and Jean Marie River.
In Fort Resolution, for example, about 120 kilometres east of Hay River, food and fuel will be brought in on Monday, said Shane Thompson, minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, during the latest N.W.T. wildfire update on Saturday night.
While the road entering Fort Resolution remains open, the highway that links the hamlet to Hay River and the south is closed due to the wildfires, according to the N.W.T. Highways map as of Sunday afternoon.
"We're still trying to get the food in right now to not only Yellowknife for essential services and the crews that are fighting the fire but also to the other communities that might need it," Thompson said.
If further roads need to closed because of wildfires, planes will be used, he said.
"We're working on that contingency plan right now."
Some airlines offering scheduled passenger flights have already shifted to supporting emergency efforts — even as some of their own staff have left the territory.
"All aircraft have been dedicated to the more urgent needs," said Chris Reynolds, president of Air Tindi, noting that activity at the Yellowknife airport is limited to evacuations, medevacs, and firefighting and military activity.
Air Tindi has largely suspended passenger flights to focus on evacuations for private businesses, getting supplies to frontline workers staying in the territory, standing by in case fire crews need to be urgently moved out, and delivering food to fly-in communities north of Yellowknife, Reynolds said.
"Food security is a big one," he said.
"When Yellowknife's shut down, you're definitely checking the stock of the grocery store. So the regular [supply] flights have been happening."
Arctic Co-operatives Ltd., whose N.W.T. member grocery stores are serviced by Air Tindi, said Saturday it was not aware of any major food disruptions in the North in the past few days.
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