Dene National Assembly still on in Fort Good Hope, N.W.T., next month, despite wildfire evacuation

CBC
·2-min read
Smoke surrounded Fort Good Hope, N.W.T., at around 11:30 p.m. on Saturday. The community is under an evacuation order. (Submitted by N.W.T. Fire - image credit)

The Dene National Assembly is still scheduled to go forward next month in Fort Good Hope, N.W.T., despite the looming wildfire and the evacuation order that's now in place for the community.

"As of this moment there is no change," wrote Leanne Goose, spokesperson for Dene Nation, in an email on Wednesday.

"If or when there is a change, a press release would be issued."

As of Wednesday, a wildfire was within a kilometre of the community. However, Fort Good Hope evacuees did get some good news as officials said the fire had moved toward an old burn area from 2017 and away from the community.

The annual Dene National Assembly, scheduled for July 23 to 25, will include the election of the Dene National Chief, who doubles as N.W.T. regional chief for the Assembly of First Nations. A record number of candidates are running in the election, which will be conducted both in-person and virtually.

George Grandjambe, who's an evacuee from Fort Good Hope, says he's happy next month's assembly hasn't been postponed.

"It would relax people more and then keep their minds away from what's happening right now. So I think it's a really good thing that these things that are planned and they're still going to go ahead."

The Dene National Assembly isn't the only event scheduled for Fort Good Hope this summer.

Grandjambe said he's particularly excited for an assembly being hosted in the community by the Sahtu Secretariat Inc. (SSI) in early August.

"I think the regional assembly is kind of important to us," he said.

"Mainly because they deal specifically with the Sahtu regional stuff, regional political issues and concerns from people at the regional level."

Charles McNeely, chairperson of SSI, said he hasn't heard of any plans to change the dates.

"I haven't heard anything from anyone, so I guess everybody is just playing by ear right now, waiting to see what happens with this fire," he said.

McNeely is hopeful the event will still go forward considering it's more than a month away.

There is also a handgames tournament in Fort Good Hope scheduled for July 19 to 21.

Delphine (Dolly) Pierrot, who is an organizer of the tournament, said the plans for it are still unclear as many of the volunteers are currently helping with the evacuation.

"I can't really make a decision like that without all of us talking, but it does definitely throw a curve ball at us," she said.

The Sahtu events wouldn't be the only ones affected by wildfires in the N.W.T. this year.

Concerns about wildfires led the Dehcho First Nations to postpone its annual assembly which was initially planned for Nahanni Butte in mid-June. It will now take place in Fort Simpson during the week of August 12.

  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next

Latest stories

  • Scientists identify new Antarctic ice sheet ‘tipping point,’ warning future sea level rise may be underestimated

    The Antarctic ice sheet is melting in a new, worrying way not taken into account by current models of future sea level rise, according to a new study.

  • The ‘world’s largest mammal migration’ happens here every year. War means no one knows about it

    New research shows that more than 5 million antelope cross South Sudan each year – blowing the world-famous Serengeti migration out of the water.

  • 'Lack of capacity': China climate envoy rejects US, EU overcapacity claims at Dalian forum

    China's special envoy for climate change has called for expanded production of the country's renewable energy products, citing a strong global demand, in a sharp dismissal of overcapacity claims raised by Western economies. "[There are] only two groups of countries that are talking about so-called overcapacity. One is the United States, the other [is] the European Union," Liu Zhenmin told an international forum on Tuesday. "For the rest of the world, for international organisations including the

  • Deaths mount as Pakistan swelters in heatwave

    Soaring temperatures in Pakistan have led more people to head to hospitals seeking help.

  • Antarctic faces melting 'tipping point' as oceans warm: study

    Scientists have discovered a new tipping point toward "runaway melting" of Antarctic ice sheets, caused by warm ocean water intruding between the ice and the land it sits on, according to a study published on Tuesday."Increases in ocean temperature can lead to a tipping point being passed, beyond which ocean water intrudes in an unbounded manner beneath the ice sheet, via a process of runaway melting," the study said. 

  • In race to regain rare earth glory, Europe falls short on mineral goals

    Four decades ago, a rare earth processing plant on France's Atlantic coast was one of the largest in the world, churning out materials used to make colour televisions, arc lights and camera lenses. Its current owner Solvay is racing to return the plant at La Rochelle to its former glory after years of diminished output as Europe seeks to boost production of the minerals fuelling the green energy transition. The factory's 76-year history is a microcosm of the challenges Europe and the United States face as they seek to reverse massive migration of rare earth processing to China that took place around 25 years ago.

  • First panda pair to enter the United States in 21 years take off from China

    Two giant pandas are en route to San Diego Zoo from China, according to Chinese state broadcaster CCTVon Thursday.

  • 'He's Making a Bed!': Black Bear Gets Comfortable in Asheville Yard

    A woman in Asheville, North Carolina, was not impressed to discover a black bear making itself at home right outside her back door.Video taken by Lindsay Eager shows the bear digging a hole next to a large oak tree in her yard.The bear can be seen squeezing into the hole to check out its handy work and resting its head against the ground, before climbing out again to dig some more.“Oh my God… He’s making a bed!” Eager says in the video. “He just made a damn bed under our tree.”Posting the video on TikTok, Eager said they have now filled the hole with eight bags of soil, after consulting an arborist who said it would cost around $5,000 to cut the tree down.“The bear has returned a few times but hasn

  • Sewage 'nuisance' complaint made against water firm

    Save Windermere says its complaint against United Utilities is the first of its kind in the UK.

  • Factbox-Companies forging a rare earths industry in the EU

    In the rare earths sector, the EU will struggle to meet most of its ambitious goals in new legislation designed to boost domestic output of critical minerals and reduce dependence on China. Below are some key companies working on rare earths, with production figures in metric tons per year. Neodymium and praseodymium (referred to in the industry by their joint elemental abbreviation, NdPr) are key rare earths needed to make permanent magnets.

  • Heat Is Killing Thousands, and Big Events Have Not Adjusted

    SYDNEY — At large events all over the world, the scenes of extreme heat stress are starting to look familiar. Older men, shirts undone, lying down with their eyes closed. Aid tents packed with the unconscious. And lines of the faithful — whether they seek religion, music, ballot boxes or sport — sweating under slivers of shade. The consequences have been dire. At this year’s hajj, the Islamic pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia, at least 1,300 people died as temperatures surpassed 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

  • Rain fails to extinguish western P.E.I. peat moss fire

    Heavy rains on Sunday followed by lighter showers on Monday were not enough to put out a peat fire burning near Foxley River.Environment Canada recorded 23.2 mm of rain on Sunday and another 4.2 mm on Monday, but it will take a sustained period of rain to put the fire out, said Mike Montigny, the province's manager of field services."Even with the amount of precipitation still the fire is burning deep into the ground. It's going to take a long time for it to be called out," said Montigny."It's s

  • 15 Southeast Cities To Retire on a Budget of $3,000 a Month

    It might not sound like enough money to pay for the necessities each month, but it's surprising how far $3,000 will go in some regions of the country -- especially in the southeastern states. Discover...

  • In Colombia, a long, perilous romance to save the harpy eagle

    Wounded and wary, the young couple appear to be into each other: their arranged romance, years in the making, is aimed at preserving the rapidly disappearing harpy eagle, one of the world's largest raptors.One of the world's most powerful and largest eagles, able to hunt monkeys and sloths, the harpy eagle has been hunted to near-extinction in some parts of its territory in Central America.

  • South Sudan says its 6M antelope make up world’s largest land mammal migration, but poaching on rise

    Seen from the air, they ripple across the landscape — a river of antelope racing across the vast grasslands of South Sudan in what conservationists say is the world's largest land mammal migration. The country's first comprehensive aerial wildlife survey, released Tuesday, found about 6 million antelope. The estimate from the nonprofit African Parks, which conducted the work along with the government, far surpasses other large migratory herds such as the estimated 1.36 million wildebeests surveyed last year in the Serengeti straddling Tanzania and Kenya.

  • ‘Real and growing’ threat to grid if Australia goes for nuclear power

    No chance nuclear energy will be ready to replace coal-fired plants, market operator warns in report that says renewables construction should speed up

  • Nation's largest freshwater fish could be added to California's threatened species list

    California's Fish and Game Commission voted to consider listing white sturgeon, the largest freshwater fish in North America, as a threatened species.

  • Part of a Minnesota home has plunged into the Blue Earth River as deadly Midwest flooding threatens the nearby Rapidan Dam

    Part of a house perched on the edge of the Blue Earth River in Minnesota collapsed into raging waters as deadly flooding that hit the Midwest threatened the nearby Rapidan Dam, which was built in the early 1900s.

  • Deadly floods still battering Midwest towns as millions remain under heat warnings

    Flooding killed at least one person in South Dakota and another in Iowa

  • This technology could transform one of the world’s dirtiest industries. Experts say it’s way off pace

    Steelmaking is responsible for up to 9% of global planet-heating pollution. The technology exists to clean it up but big obstacles remain