
Wildfire crisis exposes flaws in public alerting landscape
As a lull sets in from the early and rampant fire season in Saskatchewan, questions are surfacing about the effectiveness and use of the province’s emergency alert system.
One of the issues came up early this spring, when staff at a rural municipality threatened by wildfire went to issue an evacuation alert but weren’t able to; nobody had the authority from the province to make such a request. Rather than deliver the news via cellphone, emergency personnel relied on a more time-consuming effort: knocking on each door in the community.
Then a different incident: a vague evacuation alert was issued for a fire in Weyakwin, but the area outlined in the alert map contained the entire city of Prince Albert, setting off panic and confusion. The Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency sent out a correction and apology soon after.
These two examples are not the the first time Saskatchewan had issues with SaskAlert. In 2023, an emergency alert concerning drinking water in Maple Creek was unintentionally sent to phones across the entire province. That issue was chalked up to user error; town officials didn’t know certain options they selected on the notification would widen its distribution.