Northern airlines pivot to help with evacuations, food supply and wildfire operations

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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 havetriggered evacuation orders in the capital city of Yellowknife, as well as the communities of Ndilo, Dettah, Fort Smith, Enterprise, Hay River, Kt'odeeche First Nation,Kakisaand 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 ofMunicipal and Community Affairs, during the latest N.W.T. wildfire update on Saturday night.

While the roadentering Fort Resolution remains open, the highway that links the hamletto Hay River and the southis 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 be 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 assome 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 toevacuations, 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 foodto 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., which is serviced by Air Tindiat one of its N.W.T. member stores, said Saturday it was not aware of any major food disruptions in the North in the past few days.Yellowknifeis a hub serving the Kitikmeot region of Nunavutand the other Co-op communities up the Mackenzie Valley.

Air Tindistartedflying out 175 of its own employees, plus their families and pets, on Wednesday, the same daythe territorial government ordered all Yellowknife residents to evacuate by noon Friday, Reynolds said. Other employeesdrove south.

"It was one of those things where, how can a flight crew concentrate on flying an airplane, or the aircraft mechanic concentrate on fixing an airplane, if they're worried about their families at the same time, right?"

About 15 Air Tindi workers remain based in Yellowknife "definitely a skeleton crew," Reynoldssaid.

Moving inmatessouth

Buffalo Airwaysis also working to keep food going to communities and mines, saidSandy MacPherson, the airline's manager of business development.

Otherwise, the company is helping with evacuations, frontline supply efforts (like providing food to Yellowknife'sExplorer Hotel for essential worker meals)and fighting firesusing its own water bombers.

Buffalo has also carriedout some "niche" operations during the recent evacuations, Reynolds said.

That includes moving inmates last weekfrom theFort Smith Correctional Complex to the jail in Yellowknife due to the fire threatening Fort Smith. When the capital itself later came under threat, 85 adult inmates were flowndown to Alberta, according to the Departmentof Justice.

On Friday, Buffalo flew a charter transporting animals from the N.W.T. SPCAanimal shelter in Yellowknife to Edmonton.

The company was then flooded with calls to bringequipment such as sprinklersup to Yellowknife on its return trip, MacPherson said.

"We were able to make sure that leg, [which] would have been an empty legback north,was full of essential cargo."