Reporting on the evacuations and wildfires while also being an evacuee myself was a unique experience, one I am both grateful for and never want to repeat. It’s also something I hope both myself and others can learn from.

In many ways, I was very privileged. I was able to drive out of town in my own car and took my cat with me. I avoided the long line ups and unsafe driving conditions that many other evacuees faced. I had a safe and comfortable place to stay in the N.W.T. I didn’t have to endure weeks without pay while the bills kept coming. My home didn’t burn down.

I was deeply disappointed with how little both the city and N.W.T. government had prepared for Yellowknife’s evacuation as well as their subsequent response.

While a citywide evacuation may have been unprecedented, it was not completely unforeseen and governments did have time to plan. It was nearly a decade after the N.W.T’s infamous summer of smoke, the territory’s previous worst wildfire season on record in 2014. It was more than three years after governments were forced to adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic. And it was three months after Hay River and Kátł’odeeche First Nation were evacuated for the first time that summer. Governments could have learned from those experiences and chosen to be proactive rather than reactive.