Yellowknife MLAs are speaking out about the wildfire after-action review, which was critical of the GNWT's response to the 2023 emergency evacuation.

In particular, there's some debate over how the territorial government has responded to the report's publication. A press release from both Premier R.J. Simpson and Municipal and Community Affairs Minister Vince McKay states the GNWT is preparing a formal response to the report’s recommendations by this summer.

Until then, there will be no further comment about the report until the response is published, the GNWT stated.

Yellowknife North MLA Shauna Morgan, who noted the GNWT is separate from the independent group that conducted the report, said she thinks it's appropriate for the government to take time to issue a response and would rather that than something reactionary.

"From cabinet, I'm looking for a willingness to accept that some things went wrong," said Morgan. "I'm not looking for quick answers or quick excuses or quick explanations."

She added that she will be questioning her peers when the legislative assembly resumes on May 21 on how they plan to improve this government following the review. 

What stood out to her, she said, was the amount of disorganization within the GNWT.  

"We ended up with a few people who took on way more of a share of the burden than they should have and were absolutely stressed and strained to the max," she said. "And then a lot of other people who felt helpless and useless, who were kind of standing by going, 'We want to help,' but no effective sort of organization was in place to allow for a lot of people to actually help."

Range Lake MLA Kieron Testart, like Morgan, will also be questioning cabinet once the assembly is back in session. However, he holds a differing opinion on how the GNWT plans to respond. 

"We've had this information far longer than the public has," said Testart. "The government is well aware of this."

He said MLAs had seen the finalized review about a week before it went public and draft reports of it prior to that. Also on May 6, about a week before the review was publicly released, Simpson sent out an email to all GNWT employees warning them of the soon-to-come review. 

Testart added that it's ironic that, although the wildfire review stresses that communication and building trust with the public should be a major priority for the GNWT, the territorial government is falling short in doing so.

"When ºÚÁϳԹÏÍøers have lost trust in their government, the government should be prioritizing and rebuilding that trust by being proactive, transparent and prioritizing the thing that lost them trust in the first place, which was being completely unprepared for a crisis," Testart said.

ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø also reached out to Frame Lake MLA Julian Morse but did not hear back in time for publication.