When the forestry town's main sawmill and economic engine, Babine Forest Products, mysteriously exploded on Jan. 20 in Burns Lake, the community it called on municipal leaders to look to others for help. They didn't have to go far to find other similar communities who had been struck with disaster of one form or other that caused the entire town's economy to be ripped open.
The first, according to municipal officials in Burns Lake, was a contingent from the town of Mackenzie. Only hours after the blast, Mackenzie's leaders offered them their support based on the survival skills they learned when their main forestry employers all shut down at once during the global economic crisis. Burns Lake took them up on the offer almost immediately. The smoke was still hanging in the air when Mackenzie mayor Stephanie Killam and three others arrived.
"No two communities are going to have the same issues, ever," Killam told The Citizen. "What we didn't tell Burns Lake was 'here's what you should do' or 'here's what we're going to do for you.' They are getting themselves together, trying to decide the areas they need help in. People assume that when a community takes a hit that they lose the ability to think or see what needs to be done, and that is wrong.
"Each community is resilient in its own way and has its own internal workings that can help it survive, or at least get itself squared around to see the different areas where attention is needed."
The main suggestion Killam made to Burns Lake mayor Luke Strimbold and his colleagues was to trust the work of UNBC professor Dr. Greg Halseth, a Canada Research Chair and the director of the Community Development Institute. His tool kit for small-town economic survival helped Mackenzie immeasurably, she said, and was transferable to Burns Lake.
A lot of tools were made available to Slave Lake, Alb. when a forest fire in May, 2011 caused their entire region to evacuate and a sizable chunk of their town to burn down.
The national outpouring of support included an unscheduled royal appearance by Prince William and Kate Middleton, a visit from Entertainment Tonight-Canada, contributions from music stars Jim Cuddy and Paul Brandt, the Stanley Cup was brought, and for mayor Karina Pillay-Kinnee it was an abundance of support she knows will likely never be replicated for other communities. That spirit, though, she told The Citizen, is what needs to be mustered when any small town faces economic fatality.
"We were pretty fortunate in Slave Lake to always have that sense of community, because of all the things the community does together each year, and if Burns Lake has that it will help them through this a lot.
"If not, I hope they can do that now and come together to support one another," said Pillay-Kinnee. "You need to be creative, innovative and, yes, it is tough times with a lot of healing to do, but keep focused on moving ahead and seeing the opportunities that really do exist within the disaster."
Slave Lake lost a third of its homes but only about a dozen business properties in the blaze, most of which were rebuilt or plan to. Even the surviving homes, however, lost refrigerators and freezers, so the replacement business boomed along with construction.
Overall, it was the second largest collective insurance claim in Canadian history (surpassed only by eastern Canada's 1998 ice storm).
That kind of property damage leaves behind a pretty big emotional bill, said Pillay-Kinnee, which is why support workers from the Red Cross are still active in Slave Lake a year after the fire, and extra psychological, family, and addictions counselling services were put in place that are still running steadily.
"People need to feel OK about accessing those services privately and confidentially. In a small town that can feel challenging," she said.
Killam agreed that despite the fact "everyone rushes in to help when the disaster first happens" it is the long term effects that need the most aid, and everyone from individuals to municipalities need to keep their eyes open to those residual effects months and years after the incident.
Burns Lake is still young in its emotional grief and its economic recovery.
