Research Brief
Principal Researcher(s)
Brad Hay
Advisor
Bettina Williams
Instructor
Dr. Firoz Verjee

Research Field
Emergency
Management

Program
Bachelor of Emergency
and Security
Management Studies
Course
ESMS-4900:
Capstone Research Project

Funding Sources
N/A: Course-based
Project.

Wildfire Mitigation in the Island Lake Region
The worldwide trend for wildfires is that they are getting bigger, occurring more
often, and causing larger impacts than ever before. Annually, and as recently as
2024, wildfires in Manitoba have burned close to and threatened remote First
Nations such as those in the Island Lake Region, or ILR (Hobson, 2021; Kemp,
2022; Sinclair, 2024; Ringos, 2024). The threats of wildfires have necessitated
evacuations, compromised supply of power, damaged homes, destroyed the
environment, and threatened people’s lives. Wildfires disproportionately affect
First Nations communities because of their remoteness, isolation in fire-prone
areas, and limited access to emergency response services (Mihychuk, 2018;
Hoffman et al., 2022; Zahara, 2020). Consequently, this research answers the
questions: For the First Nations in the ILR, what mitigation opportunities can
interested parties take to increase resilience of the Nations against wildfires
while balancing traditional wildfire mitigation techniques with post-colonial
wildfire mitigation techniques to increase resilience to wildfires and what
challenges might they face when doing so?
Successfully achieving wildfire resilience for the First Nations in the ILR will result
in less impacts from wildfires, reduced likelihood of fires travelling into the
community, and less likelihood for evacuations being required. Attaining wildfire
resilience will require a systems-based approach which has social,
environmental, economic, and structural components. This research focuses on
built and natural world wildfire mitigation, and because of the uniqueness of the
region, the challenges involved in attaining resilience, and the interested parties
that would be required to meet those challenges. A critical appraisal was
conducted of available secondary data such as industry and government reports,
academic research, and research from sources such as media reporting for
potential solutions or components of solutions.
This research resulted in identification of wildfire mitigation options to both the
built and natural worlds in and around the First Nations. Those options include
fireproofing of homes, vegetation management in and around the First Nations,
the need for the Nations to re-establish Indigenous Fire Stewardship (IFS) in their
and safeguard their communities against wildfires and the need for ongoing
maintenance, lest advances in resiliency atrophy. To attain resilience,
engagement of a diverse group of interested parties ranging from the citizens of
the ILR First Nations (ILRFNs), to their leadership, to both the Governments of
Manitoba and Canada as well. Research also identified challenges that could be
encountered by the First Nations in the ILR in their journey to wildfire resilience.
Ultimately, this research provided clear insight into how the ILR First Nations
could approach becoming resilient to wildfires but also the challenges they may
encounter while doing so.

JIBC Research Brief
Structured Abstract
Introduction: For remote First Nations, wildfires can result in damaged or destroyed homes,
outages to critical infrastructure including power and telecommunications, and require evacuations
which have their own negative consequences such as trauma, being the target of racism, domestic
violence, or even suicide (Asfaw et al., 2019; McGee, 2021; Office of the Auditor General of Canada
[OAG], 2022; Public Health Agency of Canada [PHAC], 2024). With this in mind, the following
research is a review of mitigation methods, that when implemented, would increase wildfire
resilience for the First Nations in the ILR and associated challenges with implementation. Mitigation
methods and options were evaluated in their current form with current constraints to recommend a
course of action that the ILR First Nations, and applicable parties, must take to implement mitigation
options and achieve wildfire resilience.

Methods: This research used a chain-referral strategy which resulted in a critical appraisal of
secondary data to explore what mitigation measures were available to remote First Nations and
challenges they may encounter when implementing these measures. Sources came from multiple
sources such as industry or agency grey literature (31%), peer-reviewed academic articles (29%),
context specific information for the Island Lake First Nations (27%) and the remainder (13%) which
was from other sources such as general or media information.

Results/Findings: The research found a number of mitigation measures must be arrayed in a
layered, overlapping, approach in and around the First Nations to increase wildfire resilience. That
layered approach included mitigation to both the built and natural worlds. The built world is
everything that humans have created such as homes. The natural world includes items as plants,
trees, and forests the surround the First Nations. The research also uncovered awareness that with
respect to wildfire mitigation, the ILR First Nations are operating under a set of incredibly rigid
constraints. Those constraints include a short window of practical physical access that could be used
to transport in wildfire mitigation materials over a winter road, and a bureaucratic framework that
makes mitigation project execution difficult, especially with the tight physical access window. The
journey to wildfire resilience requires a diverse group of interested parties such as the citizens, First
Nations’ leadership and involvement by all levels of government working together closely to make it
so.
This research found that the following was required to attain wildfire resilience in the region:
• The built world, primarily housing, in the First Nations requires a large initial effort in fireproofing and
improving general maintenance of structures to lower the risk that wildfires pose to those structures
and attain wildfire resilience. These initial efforts will reduce the likelihood that structures could be
ignited by ember transmission from wildfires in the area;
• The natural world, such as forests, trees, and grasses in and around the Nations requires a large initial
vegetation management effort remove and control vegetation in the region. This initial effort will
reduce available fuel for a potential wildfire and lower associated wildfire risk for the Nations;
• Both the built and natural worlds will require ongoing maintenance to keep wildfire risk low and
maintain the resilience earned by initial built and natural world mitigation efforts;

JIBC Research Brief
•

•
•

•

A myriad of constraints exists for the Island Lakes First Nations in attaining wildfire resilience. They
include bureaucracy issues, lack of autonomy issues, and logistical challenges stemming from the
Nations being in a remote location. Combined, the constraints are nearly insurmountable.
A task force approach is required because of the sheer number of different interested parties and
jurisdictions involved in and around the region.
The Nations themselves must reestablish the practice of IFS and execute it for their areas. Given their
remote location and difficulty this brings to conventional large-scale vegetation management practices
and transporting heavy equipment required to do so, IFS is the only practical large-scale means to
manage vegetation in the region. It can achieve what other methods are unable to because of the
constraints introduced by the remoteness of the ILR; and
Establish strong relationships between the Nations and with interested parties such as the Manitoba
wildfire service. This is required because executing the practice of IFS must be done with a high
degree of coordination involving multiple jurisdictions present ILR.

Discussion: Wildfire resilience on the Island Lake First Nations is important. By becoming resilient
to wildfires, there is less likelihood that the Nations would be impacted by wildfires in the area. This
means a reduced need for evacuation, a reduced potential for damage to the Nations from wildfires,
and a reduced chance that citizens of the ILR would be exposed to the traumatic effects of
evacuation. Wildfire mitigation is the pathway to wildfire resilience for the ILR First Nations. Because
mitigation extends to housing by way of maintenance and upgrades, a cross-over benefit is realized
to general housing on First Nations thereby helping to alleviate a broader housing concern that is
currently plaguing those nations (OAG, 2020; OAG, 2024).

Practical Applications: This research project found that potential mitigation solutions that could
be generalizable to many similar remote First Nations, that is, those that do not have year-round
access to the community such as roads or highways. Implementing layered and overlapping built and
natural world wildfire mitigation solutions would result in additional communities increasing their
levels of wildfire resilience in a practical and sustainable manner and reducing the risks that wildfire
pose to their communities. This makes wildfire mitigation doubly important as it not only reduces risk
but improves people's lives overall.

References:
Asfaw, H. W., Nation, S. L. F., McGee, T. K., & Christianson, A. C. (2019). A qualitative study exploring
barriers and facilitators of effective service delivery for Indigenous wildfire hazard evacuees
during their stay in host communities. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 41,
101300. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2212420919304443
Hobson, B. (2021, May 19). Wildfires claim 2 homes in Cree community in northern Manitoba. APTN
News. https://www.aptnnews.ca/national-news/wildfires-claim-2-homes-in-cree-communityin-northern-manitoba/
Hoffman, K. M., Christianson, A. C., Dickson-Hoyle, S., Copes-Gerbitz, K., Nikolakis, W., Diabo, D. A.,
McLeod, R., Al Mamun, A., Zahara, A., Mauro, N., Gilchrist, J., Ross, R. M., & Daniels, L. D.
(2022, March 31). The right to burn: Barriers and opportunities for Indigenous-led fire

JIBC Research Brief
stewardship in Canada. Facets, 7(1), 464-481.
https://www.facetsjournal.com/doi/10.1139/facets-2021-0062
Kemp, C. (2022, August 18). Wildfire evacuees hopeful they'll soon return home after generators
shipped to Pukatawagan. CBC News.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/pukatawagan-fire-evacuees-generators1.6554414
McGee, T. K. (2021, May 4). Evacuating First Nations during wildfires in Canada. Fire Safety
Journal, 120, 103120.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S037971122030182X
Mihychuk, M. (2018, June). From the ashes: Reimagining fire safety and emergency management in
Indigenous Communities. House of Commons, Canada.
https://www.ourcommons.ca/Content/Committee/421/INAN/Reports/RP9990811/inanrp1
5/inanrp15-e.pdf
Office of the Auditor General of Canada. (2022). Reports of the Auditor General of Canada to the
Parliament of Canada: Emergency management in First Nations communities – Indigenous
Services Canada. https://www.oag-bvg.gc.ca/internet/docs/parl_oag_202211_08_e.pdf
Office of the Auditor General of Canada. (2024). Reports of the Auditor General of Canada to the
Parliament of Canada: Housing in First Nations communities. https://www.oagbvg.gc.ca/internet/English/parl_oag_202403_02_e_44451.html
Public Health Agency of Canada. (2024, July). Rapid review: An intersectional analysis of the
disproportionate health impacts of wildfires on diverse populations and communities.
Government of Canada. https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/phacaspc/documents/services/publications/healthy-living/rapid-review-intersectional-analysisdisproportionate-impacts-wildfires-diverse-populations-communities/rapid-reviewintersectional-analysis-disproportionate-impacts-wildfires-diverse-populationscommunities.pdf
Ringos, M. (2024, July 31). 5 northern First Nations in Manitoba forced to evacuate due to the
wildfire crisis. CityNews. https://winnipeg.citynews.ca/2024/07/31/5-northern-first-nationsin-manitoba-forced-to-evacuate-due-to-the-wildfire-crisis/
Sinclair, N. (2024, July 27). Wildfire horror real for many communities, not just historic resort towns.
The Winnipeg Free Press. https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/2024/07/25/wildfirehorror-real-for-many-communities-not-just-historic-resort-towns
Zahara, A. (2020, January 8). Breathing fire into landscapes that burn: Wildfire management in a
time of alterlife. Engaging Science, Technology, and Society, 6, pp.555-585.
https://estsjournal.org/index.php/ests/article/view/429