What Canada can learn from the explosive 2023 wildfire season

I thought I'd be able to find something. It's been four months since fire burned Paul Flaman's whole world to the ground. There's snow now, but in the hamlet of Enterprise Northwest Territories, little else has changed. Even when I build my new home, it's, I don't know, I'm not sure what this town is going to turn out to be. It was a summer of fire in Canada. In almost every province and territory, smoke and flames forced hundreds of thousands from their homes. 2023, in so many ways, is just off the charts when we look at fire activity, area burned and evacuee numbers. When it comes to evacuees, numbers have been increasing in Canada at a startling rate. Consider this. Over a 28-year period between 1980 and 2007, a total of 209,000 people were displaced by wildfire. In the last decade, it took just eight years for 250,000 people to be displaced. 2023 saw more than 230,000 people evacuated in a single year. Part of the problem is that we have to then acknowledge we cannot rely on the past to help prepare us for what's coming. Indigenous communities are the most vulnerable. More than 30 percent of those living on reserve live close to forests in areas that are often isolated and remote. When fire came within two kilometers of Fort Chippewa in Alberta last summer, members had to flee by boat and plane. What happened last, you know, this spring is a wake-up call for us in that in order for us to combat, you know, the wildfire situation, we need to come up with a concrete plan that's going to work. It's why the Athabasca Tribal Association is working with the Canadian Red Cross to ensure that if fire sweeps through their traditional lands again, community members will know exactly what to do and where to go. One of the key learnings is that more climate change adaptation and risk reduction work is required before an event, and longer supports are required through recovery. Over the last decade, the Red Cross has had to scale up its operations in a big way. Over the summer, it often responded to multiple emergencies at the same time, providing emergency housing and social support. But months later, if there are no homes left to go back to, the need for help in those communities remains. After the cameras go off, you know, sometimes we see news stories about people who are still struggling years after an event. That's not an uncommon story. I lucked out and my family had this building. What was an empty workshop, Paul Flamond has transformed into a makeshift home just in time for the holiday. With beds ready for his three kids, Flamond knows they're lucky. They're one of the few families in Enterprise able to return to some semblance of home. Heather Yerkes-West, Global News, Calgary.