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Next week's Sahtu assembly facing limitations after wildfire delay

The annual general meetings of Sahtu Secretariat Incorporated and the Sahtu Dene Council take place in Tulita, N.W.T., next week. The meetings were pushed back from early September because of wildfires.

Sahtu Secretariat Incorporated sending plane to bring delegates from each community to Tulita

Liny Lamberink · CBC News ·
People sit at a table in an arena with a dirt floor.
Delegates from the Sahtu region attend the Sahtu assembly in Norman Wells, N.W.T., in August 2022. This year's assembly, happening next week in Tulita, N.W.T., was postponed because of summer wildfires. (Sidney Cohen/CBC)

There may be fewer people than usual attending the Sahtu assembly in Tulita, N.W.T., in person next week. 

The annual general meetings of Sahtu Secretariat Incorporated (SSI) and the Sahtu Dene Council were pushed back from early September to late November because of wildfires. The change in the season has introduced travel and accommodation limitations, explained SSI's chairperson. 

"Usually we have it in the summer and people, they go by boats," said Charles McNeely. "They can set up their own tents. But this time of the year, you need a place to stay." 

The Mackenzie River connects Fort Good Hope and Norman Wells to Tulita, but it does not connect Deline and Colville Lake. 

A man with a black ballcap, black coat and dress shirt looks into the camera. He's in an auditorium.
Charles McNeely, chairperson of the Sahtu Secretariat, in Fort Good Hope, N.W.T. in 2022. (Liny Lamberink/CBC)

McNeely said SSI is sending a small plane to Deline, Colville Lake, Fort Good Hope and Norman Wells to bring delegates to the event. He said each community will be able to send 17 people on that plane, and he was unsure whether the Sahtu Dene Council was organizing something similar. 

"We got the hotel rooms, we got billets. We got pretty much accommodations for everyone that'll be going there," he said. 

McNeely said people who can't find a way to Tulita in person will be able to attend the assembly virtually. The meetings will be made available live on Zoom, and each Sahtu community will have a community space with technology set up for virtual participation. The meeting details can be found here.

McNeely said the experience would be different for those participating virtually, and that SSI was doing its best to accommodate everyone.

The Sahtu assembly runs from November 28 to 30. McNeely said meetings will happen at Tulita's arena, starting with Sahtu Dene Council meetings on Tuesday and SSI meetings on the Wednesday and Thursday. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Liny Lamberink

Reporter/Editor

Liny Lamberink is a reporter for CBC North. She moved to Yellowknife in March 2021, after working as a reporter and newscaster in Ontario for five years. She is an alumna of the Oxford Climate Journalism Network. You can reach her at [email protected]

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