The deputy mayor for the Northern Village of Denare Beach says the release of a report examining the province’s response to the 2025 wildfire season is giving residents a sense of “validation.”
Mixed Reactions to the Report
“The report laid bare a lot of things where there was either epic failures or there was some definite room for improvement,” said Karen Thomson, who serves as an elected councillor for the northern community. “It was surprisingly pleasing.”
The independent report prepared by accounting firm MNP was made public last Friday. The 132-page document highlights a number of issues within the provincial agency responsible for emergency management.
Impact on Denare Beach
During the 2025 wildfire season, the Wolfe fire destroyed nearly two-thirds of the buildings in Denare Beach, a northern Saskatchewan community along the Manitoba border. A section of the report that stood out for Thomson related to the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency (SPSA) having an organizational structure that saw people working in “silos.”
This led to a lack of communication and collaboration between agencies, and to roles and responsibilities not being clearly defined. The issues impacted people who had to evacuate, as it wasn’t clear which agency was in charge of the process, Thomson said. “People were sitting in Creighton, sitting on buses and nobody knew where they were going,” she said.
Report Findings and Recommendations
The report found SPSA had not “fully” prepared for a wildfire season as was seen in 2025. Report writers said the strains placed on SPSA by the wildfires were “extreme, but reasonably foreseeable.” Last year’s wildfire season saw more than 500 fires destroy nearly three million acres, forcing around 10,000 people from their homes.
The report made 11 recommendations calling for a review of SPSA’s structure, better fire modeling, along with strengthening internal coordination and communication. The report recommends SPSA do more to coordinate with Crown corporations and other government agencies, and work to improve workforce planning and training.
Government Response
At a media conference Friday in Saskatoon, the province said it’s directed SPSA to implement the recommendations. Minister of Community Safety Michael Weger also promised a review of the agency. “Now that we have this report, that review will be conducted,” he said.
Thomson said she would like to see SPSA work with people at the local level. She said people in the community are knowledgeable about wildfire behavior, and their concerns about the fire threat were not taken seriously. “It was falling on deaf ears quite frankly,” she said.
The province, in response to the report, has pledged to work with communities to train locals to work as wildland firefighters in a reserve capacity. It has also created a grant program to help municipal governments cover the costs of implementing FireSmart practices.
