North Thompson recovers from wildfire season

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It was one of the worst wild fire seasons in British Columbia in recent memory. Hundreds of people were evacuated from the Shuswap Nation in the Kamloops region.

On Oct. 6, the Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs Robert Nault toured the area by helicopter, accompanied by Chief Nathan Matthew of the North Thompson band and tribal chairman of the Shuswap Nation Tribal Council.

The chief said that although Nault came to see the fire damage, the Department of Indian Affairs was relatively quiet about the whole situation in supporting the communities, and it was quite a bit after the fires were gone that they assessed the damage.

"When Nault came by he made a promise that, through tribal council, Indian Affairs will help fund us with some planning dollars to assist us in the economic situation that we are facing. We did get a few economic planning dollars from Indian Affairs and we are just currently doing some paper work to access those resources, and hopefully we will get the planning in place that we need," he said.

As the fire swept north of the valley in the North Thompson region near Barriere, Louis Creek, a small reserve with eight houses on it had six completely destroyed, and the economy in the entire North Thompson Valley area was badly affected by the complete destruction of the Tolko Sawmill, which had employed 180 people.

"The 10 people from the First Nations communities in the area lost full-time jobs, and that was quite significant to have them lose their jobs. These people are now on unemployment insurance and we've been finding some short-term employment, such as in the community," he said.

Matthew said that they are presently doing an economic impact study called the "Wildfire Impact Initiative" to assess the extent of the fire damage. He said that they are also looking at a number of options such as using an existing, small, band-owned sawmill that was located outside the fire line in Chu Chua, and adding components to the operation to increase employment, and then putting on extra shifts and accessing some of the burnt wood from the fire for lumber.

"The fire made quite a big impact within our community for us in the Shushwap Nation, which includes the North Thompson Band, the Adams Lake Band and the Little Shuwap Band ... Five bands either had reserve land burned or were evacuated.

"Most of us went into Kamloops, but ... some went into Salmon Arm. In terms of evacuation purposes, the provincial emergency program was a good thing to have. It gave us a place for our people to go where there was food and a place to stay while the crisis was being handled at home," he said.

He said the North Thompson Indian Band is assisting people who have experienced the loss of their homes.

"We are assisting them to access CMHC housing, and a couple of the other houses are being built with insurance dollars. The majority were covered by insurance, so there was minimal uninsured losses to the houses. Alternative housing is being provided for the people who've lost their homes; some were put into other band houses, and others were relocated in apartments," he said.

"We are grateful that no one got hurt and that the communities pulled together in a positive way to help one another, and the network within the communities was great. It looks like we survived the fire," he said.

"The tribal council is doing some overall economic development planning for the area, for the members in the communities, and the First Nation communities have individually applied for economic development assistance to Indian Affairs to meet their specific needs.

"So far, we haven't had any confirmation of funding, but we are hoping to see some-we'll be getting something in the near future," he said.

Matthew said that he was quite impressed with the First Nations firefighters.

"Quite a few of our band members helped put out with the fire. As the fires were going, we were training others to go out to the fire line. So they cetainly accounted for themselves very well," he said.