| Summary: | Degree: Doctor of Philosophy Abstract: Many decades of successful wildfire suppression in Ontario have resulted in very few losses of life or property. However, the evacuations that often accompany wildfire suppression have continued to disrupt many remote First Nations in the province. Sandy Lake First Nation in Northern Ontario was forced to evacuate due to a wildfire that came within nine kilometers of the community in 2011, threatening safety and substantially reducing air quality. Following a community declaration of emergency, residents were airlifted and scattered to 12 cities and towns in Ontario and Manitoba. Using a qualitative community-based research approach, this study explored how residents of Sandy Lake First Nation were prepared for and affected by the 2011 evacuation. Social constructionism was employed as a guiding theoretical approach. A total of 56 interviews and two focus group discussions were completed with the evacuated band members, those who stayed behind, and people who had a management role during the evacuation. The latter group included the Chief and Council, frontline workers, and community evacuation liaisons. After describing and documenting the evacuation using eight temporal stages of the evacuation, this thesis provides an in-depth and nuanced exploration of the wide range of factors affecting the residents’ evacuation experiences. First, the thesis examines how issues related to preparedness and during-event communication influenced band members’ experiences. These issues included a delay in obtaining site-specific and reliable information about the wildfires, a lack of clarity about the protocols to be followed in declaring a community state of emergency and perceived constraints in government wildfire management policy. The lack of overall community preparedness to respond to wildfire emergencies was found to be a main factor aggravating vulnerabilities to wildfire emergency. Second, the thesis explores the impact that the government’s evacuation operation had on ...
|
|---|