After a record wildfire season, several MLAs have called for the territory to take a hard look at evacuation plans, wildfire mitigation strategies and health coverage for wildland firefighters.

In the legislature Tuesday, Community Services Minister Richard Mostyn gave a summary of the past year’s wildfire activities, including the evacuations of Old Crow, Mayo and the Eagle gold mine.

This prompted MLAs from both the NDP and the Yukon Party to call for better territory-wide strategies in case a larger Yellowknife-style evacuation ever happens here.

Part of this conversation involves the need for better planning, and part is about fire prevention.

The Yukon Party’s Brad Cathers said targeted timber harvesting is needed near Yukon communities immediately to have an impact next season.

“It is important to have short-term actions taken, while a longer-term plan is being worked on, including taking action before next fire season,” Cathers said.

NDP Leader Kate White asked specifically about the protection of Whitehorse.

“Is the Yukon government working with the City of Whitehorse to create more large-scale fire breaks?” she asked.

During the session, Mostyn emphasized the scale of the work being done on the south Whitehorse fuel break near the Mary Lake subdivision.

That fuel break drew attention late this past summer as Wildland crew conducted controlled burns to create defensible space in the area, sending plumes of smoke into the sky and worrying area residents.

Wildland Fire officials at the time allowed the media to tour the site and gave assurances on safety measures.

The fire break is designed to provide spaces where firefighters can work from should a fire threaten Whitehorse from the Carcross direction, which experts say is the likeliest place from which a fire would threaten the city.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Mostyn elaborated on future measures. He said the government needs the “social licence” to do more targeted timber harvesting and clearing of forested areas.

“For the last 20 years, there’s been a real reluctance to have people move into our forests and start to harvest the wood to make sure that we’re protecting communities,” he said. “People liked the woods around their homes.”

This has changed as more and more intense fire seasons affect the territory.

“Now, though, people are realizing that there’s actually a public need to have more management of our forests and around communities,” Mostyn said.

White says a much larger effort is needed.

“If we talk about a firebreak that we need based on examples that we’ve seen in Fort McMurray (Alta.) and now in Yellowknife,” she said, “the firebreak that we need is huge.”

She also wants to see emergency evacuation planning be a joint effort between the territorial government and the municipalities.

Currently, it is up to the City of Whitehorse and other municipalities to take the lead in any evacuation.

“This is a municipal or community responsibility,” Mostyn told the legislature.

But White cautioned that in an event like the situation in Yellowknife, when tens of thousands of people needed to be evacuated in August, the territorial government will be forced to take a lead role.

“We should be learning from Yellowknife right now,” White said.

She also said there is currently a lack of easy access to evacuation plans for people without access to the Internet.

Evacuation plans for Whitehorse are posted online in the Public Safety Protection Plan.

After the evacuation discussion, White took the opportunity to press Mostyn on the provision of presumptive cancer coverage for wildfire fighters similar to what regular firefighters get.

She sought answers on why wildfire fighters were left out of 2021 legislation that provided insurance coverage of for heart problems and several cancers linked to firefighting.

“If we’re going to have a ministerial statement about how important wildland firefighters are and all the work that they did, then I also want them to be shown the respect of what that job does and the risks that they take for people,” White told reporters outside the legislature.

Acknowledging there are some emerging studies on the subject, Mostyn pledged to make decisions regarding this based on “science and documented evidence.”

He told the legislature that wildland firefighters in the Yukon aren’t currently known to be at increased risk of cancer as they don’t deal with the same burning materials as structural firefighters or wildfire fighters in more populated areas do.

If this turns out not be true, Mostyn seemed open to changes.

“It is important to note that a new study calls this assertion into question, and we will be looking into that,” he said.

“We are going to continue to review the legislation in light of new developments in this field.”