What N.W.T. can learn from Lytton about climate resilience

In June of 2021, the village of Lytton, British Columbia, burned down in less than an hour.

Lytton is known as “Canada’s hotspot” due to its geography and location, within a canyon that make it one of the hottest places in the country during a heat wave.

Patrick Michell said he received a text message from his wife at 4:58 p.m. on the day of the fire, asking him to come home to help with a grandchild’s diaper change.

At 5 p.m., she texted to say she had just received a call that there was a fire in town. By 5:02 p.m. their house was on fire.

Michell, a former chief of the Kanaka Bar Indian Band just south of Lytton and the current rebuild director at the Lytton First Nation, spoke to the Northwest Territories Association of Communities on Thursday about his community’s approach to rebuilding infrastructure and building climate resiliency.

Throughout his presentation, Michell spoke about the need to work with all levels of government and the need for communities to be self-reliant to survive and recover from climate disasters.

Seven categories

Michell divided his community’s climate adaptation plan into seven categories: air, water, food, shelter, energy, transportation and community waste management.

He said water levels are something that should not be taken for granted and should be regularity monitored. Most communities in the N.W.T. have been keeping a keen eye on water levels in the past few years, with some experiencing both floods and droughts.

Michell said members of his community now have to travel two hours to harvest food that was traditionally available nearby.

“The lands that we put our villages on were right where the mushrooms were or the medicine berries are, but now it’s so dry for so long that we’ve lost access to our traditional foods and our medicines,” said Michell.

“They still exist, they’re just requiring a lot more effort to source.”

Michell said he took some inspiration from the town of Inuvik and its greenhouse to invest in what he referred to as “controlled environment agriculture.”

In Kanaka Bar, Michell said residents grow fruit and vegetables year-round in repurposed shipping containers and other buildings.

“We harvest tomatoes five times a year. We don’t rely on the season any more,” said Michell. “The season is too unpredictable.”

He warned that while the growing season for field crops in the North may be increasing due to climate change, it might still be possible to lose crops to wind or rain events. He said indoor agriculture may be a safer bet toward ensuring food security.

“Take an opportunity to find Northwest Territories solutions for food security, and I’m not talking about food security so that you can have an export market,” he said.

“I’m asking to make sure that their families have vegetables on the table.”

Access to energy

Michell said Kanaka Bar generates some of its own energy through solar, wind and hydro.

“We’re connected but when the grid goes down, we don’t lose the green power,” said Michell.

He said these energy sources help keep essential services, such as cooling or warming centres, operational and help keep people content and connected.

“If you’re able to charge your cell phone and access Facebook, it goes a long way to keeping people happy,” said Michell.

Michell said his community installed its own cell tower that covers a five-kilometre radius after learning that it was previously dependent on a communications provider.

“If everybody else is down, we’re still a communications hub for our community. We need to be able to talk to each other,” said Michell.

Building back

Michell said a week after the fire had taken place, the community devised a plan for how to proceed that prioritized things like medical services.

Lytton and surrounding communities are now in the process of rebuilding. Michell said everyone in Kanaka Bar who lost their home now has a rebuild schedule and budget.

Michell said so much construction is happening at once that an equipment rental company has set up a satellite office in the community, so builders can have access to items they need.

The community is also looking to build with more fire-resistant materials that might help preserve a home if a fire were to enter the area again.

Chris Chen, a representative of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada, also spoke to the N.W.T. Association of Communities on Thursday about the federal government’s Climate Toolkit for Housing and Infrastructure.

The toolkit offers a help desk and roster of experts who are available to consult and provide advice to help communities build climate-resilient infrastructure.

“You could get access to an expert who understands the climate hazard that you’re dealing with, who understands the infrastructure that you’re dealing with,” said Chen.

He added that some of the research Michell is currently undertaking in the rebuild process can be assisted through the free services provided by the climate toolkit.

Feature image: A pyrocumulus cloud, also known as a fire cloud, produced by the Lytton Creek wildfire rises into the sky from the fire burning in the mountains above Lytton, B.C., on Sunday, August 15, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck