Table 5.

Selected quotes: 2023 NWT wildfire evacuation impacts on equity-deserving populations.

Cultural and language barriers	“There had been a lack of supports for Elders who did not speak English”.
	“[A Yellowknife evacuee] spent the summer worrying about her grandparents in Yellowknife, who don’t speak English and relied on [the evacuee] for most of their information regarding the fire season and the evacuation”.
	“Dene National Chief Gerald Antoine says the pain of relocation and displacement is not new to the Dene. ‘It has also been our experience with residential school and colonization’”
Coordination failures and tracking gaps	“There’s no way for us to actually know that everybody came back, because there’s no record of everyone who left – and that in itself was a huge misstep and incredibly violent”
	“In the absence of a list, as the evacuation of Yellowknife dragged into multiple weeks, it became apparent that authorities were having difficulty tracing everyone who might need help”.
	“50 to 60 Tłı̨chǫ citizens have registered as evacuees in Edmonton, and another 90 to 100 have registered in Calgary, but a few hundred others are unaccounted for”.
Experiences of specific groups	“The authorities in the NWT took already vulnerable people – and put them in exponentially more dangerous situations in an unfamiliar place”
	“Most of my clients that were newcomers didn’t have any idea what was happening or where to go”.
	“conditions at the evacuation center and hotel accommodation would be inconceivable for his aunt and uncle – the lights and noise, the large number of people, and the pre-arranged meals would conflict with the complex health needs of two Elders.”