Fort Simpson plans independent review of flood response after the death of an evacuee

Fort Simpson's village council is calling for an independent review to look at how the community's recent flood emergency was handled.

On June 7 village council held its first meeting since flood waters hit the community one month prior. Hundreds were displaced, with many staying in a tent city.

Councillors said the review is urgent — a resident who was staying at tent city later died.

During the meeting, they said it was unclear how exactly the person died.

Fort Simpson Mayor Sean Whelly told CBC News the person was medevaced after a few days at tent city. Up until recently, Whelly was able to say, "at least everyone made it out okay," but he won't say that anymore. 

In an email to CBC News, N.W.T. chief coroner Garth Eggenberger said no investigation into the death was underway.

"It is likely that [the person] died of a natural causes during a stay at a hospital and therefore not reportable to our office," he said.

The proposed review will focus on improvements to the village's emergency plan, along with recommendations to the territorial government's emergency management organization. 

'Sudden' changes to evacuation plans complicates village's response

The call for a review was prompted by a few factors. Councillors said Fort Simpson's evacuation plan had been the same for years. But this year, that plan changed only a few days before the historic flood began. 

During the N.J. Macpherson School COVID-19 outbreak in Yellowknife, community leaders in Fort Simpson were told by government officials that evacuees would be set up in Yellowknife's Fieldhouse, rather than in Yellowknife hotels. 

At the time, the territorial government would only confirm that "several" options were under evaluation in case of an evacuation.

Coun. Marie Lafferty said the decision was sudden, and forced the community to rethink how it would support evacuees. 

"I think that's what threw us off," she said. 

"During Covid, to put 200 people in one big building, I'd say is very wrong. I don't know what they were thinking."

Whelly told CBC that he wasn't sure where residents were going until they arrived at the airport. He also said that many of the residents who were evacuated to Fort Smith ended up returning to the community or found other accommodations. 

Coun. Muaz Hassan put forward the motion for an independent review, which was unanimously supported.

"On this emergency plan, we don't have anything that's talking about how we're going to accommodate and shelter the people who decided to stay here," said Hassan.

He also raised concerns about transparency. 

During the council meeting, Hassan took issue with how some people were prevented from attending emergency preparedness meetings with territorial officials prior to the flood.  Councillors also discussed how deputy mayor Celine Antoine was turned away from a meeting, and that media was not allowed to attend. 

"If we're banning the media from entering the meeting, what are we doing behind closed doors?" asked Hassan. 

"We have the right to know exactly what is happening in our community."

Whelly agreed. He said "there were major communications gaps."

"The giant gap that had been noted for the last three weeks was the slow speed at which the territorial government even began to understand their own responsibilities," he said.

Council has yet to decide how the review will be funded and who will conduct it.