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Hay River and Fort Smith residents are hoping this is the week that they get a firm timeline for a return home.
Residents of those communities, plus the Kátł’odeeche First Nation and Enterprise, will reach one month displaced from their homes this week.
Hay River has released a re-entry plan but is yet to attach dates to it. The Kátł’odeeche First Nation previously said essential workers will begin returning from Tuesday but has given no dates for other members to come home. Fort Smith says a re-entry plan is imminent.
Meanwhile, re-entry flights to bring Yellowknife residents home are continuing beyond the GNWT’s initial Sunday cut-off.
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The territory now says flights are continuing into a new week to repatriate evacuees accommodated in some smaller Alberta communities. The GNWT said Sunday was, however, the last day for evacuees accommodated in Calgary, Edmonton or Leduc to catch a free flight home.
Registration for GNWT flights ended on Friday last week.
On this page, we’re bringing you updates throughout Monday on plans to bring residents home, the latest travel news for Yellowknifers still making their way home by road and air, and news from the crews fighting major fires across the territory.
Read our quick summary of wildfire threat to get the latest on the fires in less than a minute of reading. And remember to bookmark our homepage for all of our coverage in one place.
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You can also check out our guide to how Yellowknife businesses are reopening and the offers they have for returning residents.
Contact us:
- We are not the government but if we can help, we will: ask a question here
- To tell us about someone amazing who deserves a shoutout for what they’re doing or did, email us here
- Heading home? Please email us updates about highway conditions or your flight experience
- Still an evacuee? Tell us how it’s going where you are. What are your concerns and what’s keeping you going right now?
- Send photos and video of your experience by emailing us here
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Updates appear below, latest first. All times are MT.
Live text reporter: Ollie Williams in Yellowknife
7:42 – New from my colleague Simona: We spoke with Elders – at their homes, in evacuation centres and even on the fire line – about this summer’s upheaval across the NWT’s land and in communities.
7:28 – Smoke plumes on Highway 1 caught a lot of travellers’ eyes yesterday. Satellite hotspot mapping suggests most fire activity took place north of Highway 1 between the road and the Mackenzie River, below Big Island. There was also a big flare-up just west of the highway south of Enterprise.
7:22 – Some updates from the weekend. The GNWT re-entry flights are continuing into this week for evacuees who were hosted in smaller Alberta communities. Highway 7 reopened. The Edmonton evacuation centre has moved. And Kakisa’s evacuation order has lifted.
7:16 – Good morning and welcome back to our ongoing live coverage. If you’re still making your way home to Yellowknife, we’d love to hear how the journey is going, whether that’s by air or road – and if you’re a South Slave evacuee, we’ll bring you news here as work on re-entry plans continues.