Telecommunications systems in the Yukon are back up and running – for now, after a memorable weekend.

On Friday evening, the territory’s Internet, cell service and land lines, including 911 services, all suddenly failed.

Customers lined up in the big box stores – and smaller businesses – planning to pay with Internet-based methods suddenly found they had to find enough cash to cover their goods, or put things back.

Some tried to use on-premises ATMs – only to find them down as well.

Some businesses had the backup support of Starlink for Internet services.

Temporary signs were placed on key arteries advising anyone with an emergency to go to the RCMP detachment, for instance.

Banks normally open on Saturdays, such as the TD, had to close and place explanatory signs to would-be patrons on their doors.

Julia Duchesne, the information officer for the Emergency Co-ordination Centre, sent out an email at 9:36 p.m. Friday titled “Telecommunications and 9-1-1 outage”.

The email stated, “Yukon government is aware of an outage affecting Internet, landlines, and cell phones in the Yukon.

“This is because the fibre line has been damaged by a wildfire near Fort Nelson (Parker Creek fire) in British Columbia. A geomagnetic storm may be impacting satellite phones as well.

“More information will be shared when it is available and on https://www.yukon.ca/emergencies

“911 is not working. If you need to report an emergency, send someone to the nearest RCMP station or detachment, health centre or hospital.”

Duchesne sent out another email Friday at 10:30 p.m. further advising that information will be shared on CKRW and https://www.yukon.ca/emergencies as it becomes available.

“911 is not working. In Whitehorse, you can get help at the ambulances stationed at:

• Canada Games Centre;

• Riverdale Super A;

• Qwanlin Mall;

• North of 60 at Wann Road;

• Whistle Bend roundabout

“You can also get help at the RCMP detachment (4th Ave), and both Whitehorse fire halls (2nd Ave. and Black St, and the top of 2 Mile Hill), or by flagging down an emergency vehicle.

“In communities outside Whitehorse, call emergency healthcare by using the phone on the outside of the community health centre, or at the local RCMP detachment.”

Internet services in some areas, including in Whitehorse, had been restored by Saturday afternoon.

Duchesne sent out another update at 5:12 Saturday afternoon advising that “some cable Internet, landline, and cell service in the Yukon is working.

“You can also contact emergency services via:

• Security guards at Superstore, Cornerstone building at 7th and Main;

• Yukon Inn front desk;

• Sirius Security patrol vehicles from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.”

The email went on to note highway closures at that time, which remain in effect as of this morning:

“The Alaska Highway (Hwy 97) is closed at Fort Nelson, and the highway to Fort Liard (Hwy 77) is closed. The Stewart-Cassiar Highway is still open. The Robert Campbell Highway is closed north of Watson Lake (km 40) due to flooding from a beaver dam release.”

Duchesne’s email also stated Bylaw Services was involved in emergency efforts.

“Bylaw Services will be conducting proactive patrols throughout Whitehorse from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Officers will be driving throughout neighbourhoods and are available if residents require assistance.”

Cell service was restored in most of Whitehorse Saturday evening.

A media briefing was held at noon Sunday at the Emergency Coordination Centre in Whitehorse.

The briefing, conducted by Duchesne and other ECC personnel, advised of the highway closures (including the Alaska Highway (BC Highway 97) south of Toad River, B.C. and BC Highway 77) and stated there was no ETA on reopening of the highways.

“Travellers who have already entered B.C. on Highway 97 are urged to hold in place at a location with services.”

ECC also stated, “Alternate routes must be considered at this time for any travellers with southern destinations beyond Fort Nelson.”

Duchesne also advised, “Thanks to the tireless efforts of Northwestel techs, telecommunications services, including 911, are mostly restored in the Yukon and northern B.C.

“Long distance is restored across the North.

“Services in the Mackenzie Valley and Beaufort Delta regions of the N.W.T. are working, however, they are congested. Northwestel is working hard today on repairing more fibre damage in the N.W.T.

“Some people in the Yukon may still be having trouble with cell, landline or Internet.

“With wildfires ongoing in B.C. and the N.W.T., connectivity issues may continue over the next few days.

“Please stay alert and prepared for emergencies including loss of telecommunications. Report any service issues to Northwestel.”

Duchesne said ambulances were no longer stationed at the above locations in Whitehorse.

She also thanked “everyone who shared information with their neighbours, and to the media who went above and beyond to broadcast information to Yukoners via radio during very challenging circumstances.”

After the briefing, Duchesne was asked about further risks to the technical infrastructure and replied,

“As everyone’s aware, there’s quite a wildfire burning by Highway 97 there and it’s unpredictable what that fire’s impact on the road and the telecommunications infrastructure along the road will be over the next few days.

“So I would urge people to stay prepared. I’m not going to speak to too much of the specifics of that fire, but it’s very possible that we could experience connectivity issues again in the next few days due to that wildfire, or the ones currently burning in the N.W.T. so stay alert, stay prepared.”

Duchesne explained how the N.W.T. fire was contributing to telecommunication problems in the Yukon.

“There’s two fibre lines. Usually when one goes down, there’s another one. There’s fire damage between like, just west of Kakisa in the Northwest Territories on that highway due to the line.”

When asked why cell service was lost, Duchesne said, “The fibre line does affect not just Northwestel, but also cellular service.”

Logistics Section Chief Cody Goulin added, “All of the information that comes through the cellular network goes through fibre.

“So if you lose that Internet connection through the fibre, the cell phone service doesn’t work anymore.”

Duchesne added, “Typically, if only that one line that goes down, the (Highway) 97, is damaged, services can be rerouted through the N.W.T. and the reason that we had such a complete loss of telecoms and a long-lasting one this time was because both were damaged by wildfires at roughly the same time.”

Asked if there was any warning that the fibre lines might be damaged, Duchesne responded, “The actual impacts on the fibre line and the behaviour of the fire can be hard to predict in advance. So the telecoms outage, specifically, no, we didn’t get any advance warning.”

She added, “In the North, you know, especially in the Yukon, our infrastructure is vulnerable in some significant ways.”

Duchesne reiterated the importance of having a 72-hour evacuation kit ready to go.

“It could be something like a wildfire evacuation. It could be a flood, it could be a power outage at minus 30. It could be a telecoms outage as well, so this was a good reminder of that reality.”

Duchesne was asked whether the early fire season this year played a role in the telecommunications outage.

“It wasn’t a surprise that that we’re seeing this kind of wildfire activity,” she replied. “I think everybody knew that we were heading into a fairly dry spring.

“So with wildfire season underway, we are no longer expecting a smooth spring when it comes to wildfires, unfortunately.”

There was some good news for the Yukon, however. Duchesne said the wildfire danger is low to moderate.

There have been outages in the past, she noted.

ECC planning officer Michelle Klaben recalled that there was an extended 911 outage in the last few years, but that was a national outage.

Duchesne said the ECC will be doing a debrief with their partners and sharing the information coming out of that in the next week or so.

As for the highway closures affecting freight getting to the Yukon, Duchesne pointed out that the Stewart-Cassier Highway is an alternative route, although there could be some re-routing delays.

A Yukon government spokesperson said freight could be flown in as well if necessary.

When asked if there’s any way to predict outages, Duchesne said, “When you have wildfires burning close to Highway 97, which is an important comms link, you may expect to see impacts.”

Duchesne was asked if it’s known when the Yukon would be “in the clear” when it comes to outages from wildfires.

“No, there isn’t a timeline moment for when that’s no longer a threat,” she replied.

Duchesne also explained how the fibre line was fixed.

“A team of techs from Northwestel set out from Whitehorse towards the damaged zone and I know that they were working on that fibre line throughout (Saturday) and into the evening and did have to stop several times due to the winds changing, that kind of wildfire activity, and just working to get that cable reconnected and and fixed.”

Duchesne was asked how prepared ECC is for a more serious incident this summer.

“We had a combination of a telecoms outage and then also some difficulty with some of our backups such as satellite phones and satellite Internet, which is unusual to have an incident where we have quite a few layers of our communications backup removed like that.

“There was some some door-knocking to activate people.

“We leaned very heavily on the work of the Yukon Amateur Radio Association. Ham radio really came through for us on Friday night and Saturday. So just a reminder, the importance of just having many, many layers of redundancy.

“We’ve certainly learned a lot, and we’ll be taking that into account as we head into the summer.”