The Northwest Territories (NWT) in Canada experienced unprecedented wildfires in 2023 which directly impacted over 2/3 of the population of the entire territory. The capital city Yellowknife, where half the NWT population resides, was surrounded by out-of-control wildfires that necessitated the unprecedented mass evacuation of the entire community. Emergency response required collaboration between wildland fire fighters working outside the community with the structural firefighters working within the city, concurrent to 4 orders of government coordinating emergency response while addressing urgent emerging issues including internet outage, evacuation enforcement, residents who wouldn’t leave, pets left behind and food resupply for unaffected communities.
Speaker: Sheila Bassi-Kellett, Former City Manager of Yellowknife 2023
Affiliation: Former City Manager, City of Yellowknife. (2017 – 2024). Currently working as a consultant
Bio: Sheila Bassi-Kellett brings 35+ years of public sector expertise, including 4 years as Deputy Minister and over 7 years as City Manager for Yellowknife where she was recognized nationally as a Woman of Influence in Local Government. As City Manager, Sheila led the Incident Command Team responding to the 2023 wildfires that threatened Yellowknife.