REGINA — With residents of Denare Beach in the audience at the Legislature, Premier Scott Moe has offered an apology for not getting to their community sooner following the wildfires that devastated the community.
A delegation of residents from Denare Beach were on hand Monday, where they met government officials including Premier Moe. They were also in the Assembly to hear Moe’s comments during question period, as recorded in Hansard.
“I had the opportunity a number of weeks ago to visit the community of Denare Beach. I should have been there sooner,” Moe said.
“Mr. Speaker, often in this business we get busy putting up guards to protect whatever it is, our family, ourselves, and I certainly have been competent, as shown this past summer, in doing just that. Mr. Speaker, there’s a period of time when there should have been a leader of this province in the community of Denare Beach to provide the support — personal support — for those families, and I wasn’t there. And for that I apologize to the folks that are here today, through them to the other community members in Denare Beach.
“But I also offer to them that this will be a government that is going to work with them every step of the way as we rebuild — and not just the community — as we rebuild not just buildings and houses, but as we provide you with the opportunity to have the confidence that you and that next generation is going to be able to rebuild homes in Denare Beach.”
Following question period, Cumberland MLA Jordan McPhail, who had been highly critical of the government’s wildfire response in the North, said “today was a good step from the Premier to apologize to some of these folks here today.”
“Today we heard the Premier admit to not going up to their community early enough. It took 116 days after two-thirds of their community burnt. And I appreciate the Premier taking to his feet in the legislature today to apologize on behalf of the Saskatchewan Party. And I do think that it's unfortunate that these folks, these amazing, resilient, strong individuals from Denare Beach had to travel hours to the provincial building here to get the ear of the Premier. But regardless, today we've seen the apology. I appreciate that. And I think that there's a lot to be said about what we need to see so that this never happens again.”
McPhail added that people across the North have “still a lot of questions of what happened this year.”
“Apologizing for not going up to a community soon enough is one step. But the next step is restoring trust to the people of the North. And that's by funding and resourcing and planning with local municipalities, with local fire departments, and making sure that things like what happened this summer in the North never happen again.”
Residents of Denare Beach welcomed the words of Premier Moe.
“I needed it, personally,” said Rhonda Werbicki, a resident of Denare Beach for 26 years. “And I'm very thankful that the Premier did recognize he should have come to see us sooner, but there is still a lot to follow that. Those are words, and so I'd like to see some action behind it. But yeah, that is a very good first step.”
As for how the recovery is doing in Denare Beach, Werbicki said the “cleanup process is still ongoing. I think most of the lots are already clean, there might be one or two. But all the dead trees are gone. I think right now there is some foundation being poured for garages, and there is one home that was brought in.”
Dustin Trumbley, a 12 year resident of Denare Beach, had the foundation of his home poured just that morning. He paid tribute to the cleanup efforts that were happening.
“(Rhonda’s) husband, Joey Werbicki and Werbicki Trucking, I can't thank them enough. They took on this project after it was devastated, even before he had any government funding, anything. He said, ‘I'm going to clean up Denare Beach’, and he took it upon himself and pushed with the village, the councillors, with Jordan (McPhail)’s help. They really just crushed it out there. They just, the cleanup is just extraordinary.”
Returning to Denare Beach was emotional for Trumbley, who admitted he had “many fights and arguments” with his fiancé about whether to move to nearby Creighton. “I didn't want to move back over there, and that's the truth,” he said.
“But I told Joey, her husband, before we came down here, that was the first time I smiled coming into Denare Beach since the fire. And I've never lied once, and I won't start lying now. It really meant a lot. I've become a very emotional man, apparently, now in my older age because there's been a lot of tears and heartache through this, but this is some tears of joy for the first time.”
Trumbley also described the meeting they had at the Legislature with Premier Moe.
“In the meeting we just had with the Premier, I literally, and Rhonda, and my in-laws sat and reminded him what he did when he took this oath as a Premier was to serve, protect the people, remind him that he's a human being, this isn't about politics. All lives matter…
“I am, yes, grateful he did apologize… publicly, for the first time, and it means a lot. We encouraged him to come to Denare Beach to tell everybody that. They all deserve to hear it.”
But it was clear from Trumbley’s comments that there were also still considerable hard feelings remaining about the government response.
“I have zero faith in Mr. (Tim) McLeod. I'm sorry, I don't,” Trumbley said. “The Public Safety Agency has let us down, and it is going to take years to restore faith in what was such a devastating year, and it needs to be fixed immediately.”
He said until “proof's on the table and we see it, it's going to take a long time to restore faith in the Sask government.”
SPSA speaks on independent review
Marlo Pritchard, President of SPSA was asked by reporters if SPSA should apologize for their response to the wildfire season.
In response Pritchard pointed to the frontline members and said “our frontline wildfire staff, the volunteer fire departments, were nothing less than heroic. They put their lives on the line to save lives."
Pritchard noted it was a dangerous situation for frontline firefighters.
“Were we able to save all of the properties and residents? Absolutely not. Unfortunately, the situation in the wildfire activity was such that we had to pull resources off, so we did not lose individuals. Life is always number one.”
Pritchard also spoke of the announcement Monday that the RFP process had concluded and a contract had been awarded to MNP to do an independent third-party review of the wildfire response.
Pritchard said MNP will look at decision making, wildfire behaviour, the evacuation process, and all aspects around aircraft deployment.
“So they will really define as they go what that full independent review will be. They come with lots of experience. They've done Jasper, Fort McMurray, and a number of other wildfires. So we are, again, just starting the process, but very optimistic that they will give us some great feedback and recommendations on what they see.”
Whether SPSA had done all it could to fight the fires "will be part of our third-party review," Pritchard said.
“I was in a number of those communities that were impacted, and devastatingly impacted. But I do also know that our staff put it all on the line.”
Pritchard said the hope is that the report will be made public in January or February.
As for the group from Denare Beach who were in Regina, Pritchard said he will meet with them sometime this week. He also says he plans to go back out to Denare Beach again in the near future to share some further information.
