Northern Ontario wildfire evacuees get used to life – and the food

Globe and Mail

5 hours ago

Claudia Linklater sits at the stovetop range in the kitchenette of her west Toronto hotel room, opening and pouring cans of tomato soup into a big stockpot full of rice and ground beef soup.
'It has to be Campbell's,' she says about the specific brand of soup that her fellow community members prefer.
The mother and grandmother from Sandy Lake First Nation is one of about 2,000 wildfire evacuees forced out of the fly-in community over 1,000 kilometres away in the remote dense boreal forest of Northern Ontario.
About 400 evacuees from Sandy Lake have been displaced in a cluster of four Mississauga hotels since June 7. And approximately 800 evacuees from nearby Deer Lake First Nation are in a different cluster of hotels in the GTA.
Ms. Linklater's room is one of the few equipped with a kitchenette. She's taking advantage by preparing home cooked meals palatable to the homesick tastebuds of the remote north.
Two large plastic bins full of prepared bannock dough – one plain and one raisin – made by another Sandy Laker get delivered to Ms. Linklater's room for frying.
The bannock and soup is a taste of home, a welcome distraction from the uncertainty of when Ms. Linklater and thousands of others can return. The mother of four will continue to prepare homemade meals for her fellow evacuees using donations to get the groceries needed, inspired by her late grandmother who used to cook for others.
'She would try to feed as many people with what she had,' Ms. Linklater said.
Deer Lake First Nation was fully evacuated about a week before Sandy Lake, by the same fire that threatened Deer Lake's airport, the wind spreading it at rapid speeds toward Sandy Lake about 70 kilometres away.
The fire, measuring 183,000 hectares, is still considered out of control by the fire officials. It's destroyed traditional hunting camps and electric infrastructure but has spared major damage to the communities or homes.
In a makeshift 'band office' on the second floor of another hotel, Deer Lake First Nation Chief Leonard Mamakeesic sits at a large table with his band councillors for their regular evacuation update call with joint emergency management partners of about 80 people.
According to the Joint Emergency Management Steering Committee evacuation standards manual obtained by The Globe, 'when a First Nation community notifies the Provincial Emergency Operations Centre (PEOC) of their emergency situation and requests an evacuation due to an emergency, the PEOC in partnership with the requesting community, involved tribal council, other Indigenous partners, provincial ministries, and federal departments will coordinate the preparation for and conduct of a safe evacuation.'
On this particular morning, however, the call is cut short before an update could be provided when those on the other end learn that MPP Sol Mamakwa and Ontario legislature speaker Donna Skelly are present, as invited guests of Deer Lake. Moments prior, The Globe and Mail was also asked to leave the virtual meeting after being invited by Mr. Mamakeesic.
Ms. Skelly said in an interview she was disappointed about the dropped call and would be speaking with the ministers of emergency preparedness and response and natural resources.
'I think they have a right to hear the latest on the fire in their community, and whether or not there's a plan moving forward to get them back home, or whether they still have to wait to get the fire under control.'
The Conservative MPP, who removed Mr. Mamakwa from the legislature earlier this month for unparliamentary language, said her visit with the Deer Lake leadership and evacuees is part of her efforts to connect with the north.
'[Sol and I] have, I think, a common goal to do as much as we can for people, not just in Toronto. That's my problem with politics in Ontario, it's so Toronto focused,' she told The Globe.
Ms. Skelly said she was glad to see the evacuees settling in but empathized with the challenges of being so far from home.
'Keeping people together is important, but also how anxious it must be and how much you would want to go back. I'd be bored to tears,' Ms. Skelly said.
Sitting outside the hotel on a bench with other Deer Lake evacuees on a humid day, Gordy Meekis finishes his cigarette.
'I miss my boat,' he said. 'I'd rather be in the bush than out here.'
Life in the hotels isn't a vacation for the evacuees. Many are put to work for their communities and with provincial officials who oversee logistics and planning.
Safety and social issues are a priority for leaders like Mr. Mamakeesic and farther distances from home in large urban cities such as the GTA, where many have never been, add to vulnerabilities. The communities implement their own measures such as nightly curfews and prohibiting alcohol and drugs in hotel rooms, with some success.
Emergency operations companies are often contracted by Indigenous Services Canada to act as host sites for evacuees, providing 24-hour wraparound services.
Paul Syrette, the director of operations for ISN Maskwa, an Indigenous emergency operations, said it's a responsibility they take seriously.
'If there's anything that is the biggest and most important piece of taking care of the folks when they arrive at the host locations, is health,' Mr. Syrette said.
Opinion: As northern Canada burns, southern Canada makes climate change worse
In some cases the evacuation has been a blessing in disguise. One evacuee from Deer Lake with an already diagnosed brain aneurysm was able to get immediate medical treatment that likely saved his life, Mr. Mamakeesic said. That's a luxury not afforded back home where access to a hospital and doctor can take several hours, sometimes days, and where the only way out is by plane.
'If he was in Deer Lake, I don't think he would've survived,' Mr. Mamakeesic told Mr. Mamakwa and Ms. Skelly in their meeting.
Vice-principal of the Sandy Lake elementary school Glenn Soriano and 15 other Filipino educators working in Sandy Lake were among the first to be evacuated.
Many of them already had homes in the GTA where they could return. The group cooked and delivered traditional Filipino dishes and 'rez' favourite Kraft Dinner with hot dogs to their fellow community members.
'This is one way of showing our appreciation to how they treat us over there. We are treated as the same as the community members,' Mr. Soriano said about his experience living and working in Sandy Lake for the past five years.