Note: This story is a live file and will be updated as new information arrives. This story was last updated at 6 p.m. Wednesday.
Staff members from The Reminder have evacuated Flin Flon, but will keep writing updates as long as possible during the emergency. If you have questions or concerns you would like us to chase or add here about the fire, evacuations or anything else, please notify us at [email protected].
Anyone seeking to register with the Red Cross or to donate to their campaign can do so at https://www.redcross.ca/2025manitobawildfires or 1-800-863-6582.
Cranberry Portage residents have received the thumbs-up to head back home this weekend.
The RM of Kelsey announced June 11 that people who needed to evacuate the community will be able to return starting June 14 at 8 a.m. The RM announced that the decision was made after discussions with Incident Command System and with the establishing of a re-entry plan.
"Hydro and telephone are functioning as normal, and water/sewer testing has been done to ensure the safety of water for consumption and use," reads the RM's announcement.
The RM will also arrange transport to the community, according to the statement - that will come in the form of two buses leaving the Wescana Inn in The Pas Saturday, with one leaving at 9 a.m. and another at noon.
People coming home are asked to stock up on groceries before coming home if possible and to pack up belongings ahead of time, including medication, electronics, pets and other items - stores in the community will likely either be out of stock or not yet open.
Most other northern communities are still under mandatory evacuation orders, but slowly, some communities are reopening. Pelican Narrows and other Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation communities, except for Denare Beach, saw orders lifted last weekend.
Other communities, including Flin Flon, Creighton, Denare Beach, Snow Lake and others are still on mandatory evacuation. Few new hotspots have been reported around the area in recent days, but there may be some not marked - both NASA/FIRMS and Natural Resources Canada use satellite imagery to collect hotspot data and high cloud cover and smoke have made them hard to spot.
"The mandatory evacuation remains in effect. No one other than authorized personnel should be in the Town or region," reads a June 11 statement from the Town of Creighton.
Sask. funding
The Saskatchewan government, which has come under fire in recent weeks for its treatment of both northern fires and evacuees having to flee the region, announced it would provide some financial aid for people who had to evacuate.
According to a June 11 announcement, the province will provide an extra $500 per person over age 18 in financial aid, along with aid previously announced by the province June 7. That money, as per the province, "will be issued directly to communities as a grant from the provincial government," reads the statement.
"Funds will be disbursed by community leadership to affected residents over the age of 18. Those residents are eligible for $500."
Northerners have reported issues accessing money, aid and assistance from both the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency and the Saskatchewan Red Cross. Other people from Flin Flon, Creighton and Denare Beach have also experienced issues accessing help if they evacuated from Manitoba to Saskatchewan or from Saskatchewan to Manitoba.
Ombudsman
Saskatchewan Ombudsman Sharon Pratchler announced June 10 that she will be investigating Saskatchewan's response to the wildfires and evacuations, saying she has received several complaints and notices from people affected.
"We are getting complaints from people not receiving services and we received those complaints through various methods," said Pratchler in a June 10 news conference in Saskatoon.
"We have complaints from a local municipality who has arrived to us with pages of names of people who have no access to services, who have been waiting days for those services. I'm receiving calls to my office and I'm going to evacuation sites and hearing from people directly about the impact of this wildfire evacuation on them and whether they have access to services."
Pratchler said that both access to aid and communication for how access aid has been difficult for people who have been evacuated from the region - people don't know where to get help and even if they get through, the help isn't enough.
"We are hearing that northern residents are not feeling heard," she said.
"From what we hear from their perspective, as people who have been displaced from their own communities, some having lost everything but the clothes on their backs, they are seeking information and resources.
Pratchler said she has heard specifically from people in Flin Flon, Creighton and Denare Beach who had been affected by both the fire and problems with the response. In the news conference, she relayed stories she'd been told of people needing to sleep in cars, having trouble accessing food and shelter, running out of money and not getting needed financial assistance - even among provincial government workers and staff.
"The worries that I have heard from the people that I have sat alongside, who come from communities like Creighton, Denare Beach, Flin Flon, both sides of the border. Their worries are, what does this mean for me in the short term, the medium term and the long term. In the absence of responses, there are people who feel abandoned. My goal is to have their voices heard."
Pratchler's job as an ombudsman is to hear complaints with a government and attempt to resolve them quickly and confidentially. The ombudsman's job is to investigate complaints and relay concerns in hopes of getting them fixed.
Pratchler also issued several calls to action for the provincial government, including having a fully-staffed 24/7 crisis line for people in need of help, a central database to track who has been evacuated and where they have gone, financial aid and communication on how to access it and a long-term plan to help people who have lost their homes.
“Words that should not be used right now by any government or public entity -‘we are working on it’. The time for working on it has passed. An immediate response is required,” she said during the news conference.
"The needs are immediate and the response must be immediate."
Pratchler and the office of the Saskatchewan ombudsman can be contacted at [email protected] or toll-free at 1-800-667-9787. The ombudsman also includes staff trained in mental health fields and Jim Pratt, a Knowledge Keeper and elders' helper. A Facebook account in Pratchler's name shared information about the investigation and call for information on several northern Saskatchewan community pages.
"We are here for you when you are ready to and need to talk. We are here to listen," read the posts.
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