When the smoke clears: Northern Sask. wildfires leave many businesses in limbo

Aliyah Marko-Omene · CBC News

· Posted: Jun 16, 2025 8:38 PM EDT | Last Updated: 8 hours ago

Wildfires person burned done overmuch of bluish Saskatchewan, forcing thousands from their homes and leaving galore concern owners who trust connected section tourism in limbo.

While immoderate person been near with nothing, adjacent those whose businesses survived are left with uncertainty astir what's next.

"We were successful our archetypal week of summertime operations for this play erstwhile the evacuation bid came," said Cindy Ouellet, who owns the T&D Amisk campy — astir 30 kilometres from Denare Beach — alongside her hubby Nick.

She said they had to evacuate guests retired of the campy connected May 28, past spell done and cancel bookings up to July 5 "week-by-week."

Ouellet said the aftermath of the wildfires has been "devastating" for her business.

"Our play runs from the past week of May to typically the 1st of October," she said. "We bash immoderate tiny concern operations successful the winter, but that's precise minimal compared to the summertime months. And the period of June is our main breadstuff and butter."

Ouellet said she is fortunate her concern is covered by a concern interruption security policy. She had to usage it erstwhile earlier during the pandemic, erstwhile her concern was unopen down for a twelvemonth and a half.

Not everyone has that option. Ouellet said she made a backstage Facebook radical to assistance those who person suffered losses — galore of them friends and "fellow concern owners."

She said the radical is simply a spot solely for those who request to rebuild. It volition supply "all the resources possible," including RTM providers, builders, contractors and security information.

"Seeing friends perfectly hopeless and lost, suffering this devastation and past connected apical of it having to marque truly large decisions reasonably quickly," Ouellet said. "Nobody should person to bash that without immoderate benignant of help."

Ouellet and her hubby person also housed residents arsenic they statesman to instrumentality to the country and crews coming successful to assistance rebuild.

Earlier this month, owners of The Ridge connected Amisk Resort announced it arsenic a full nonaccomplishment aft the Wolf occurrence engulfed the bluish colony of Denare Beach.

"Our beingness savings, dreams, our blood, sweat and tears on with our hearts and souls, successful 1 day it was each taken away," the station said.

Neil MacAuley, the proprietor and relation of La Ronge Fishing Adventures, is grappling with what enactment could look similar erstwhile the fume settles.

He runs a third-generation charter cognition that provides afloat and half-day guided fishing, and each the cogwheel required.

MacAuley said that arsenic the wildfire play has gotten worse implicit the past mates of years, radical successful the assemblage person go "a small uneasy."

"You person your clients and your guests retired there, and they're watching elephantine plumes of fume billowing up, you know, 10 to 15 miles away," helium said. "You're trying to reassure them that you know, we're going to beryllium OK, it's safe."

MacAuley said helium hopes it volition beryllium a bully play for his business, but it heavy relies connected the campgrounds successful the area, galore which person burned down.

"We've already had astir seven or 8 cancellations already. So we're going to effort and capable those up, but it's going to beryllium pugnacious for us."

He said galore of those calling to cancel person been radical who person mislaid spot successful the fire.

MacAuley is not the lone concern proprietor experiencing a slew of cancellations. Glen Thompson, 1 of the owners of Osprey Wings, an aerial charter institution successful bluish Saskatchewan, said betwixt 80 and 100 flights person been cancelled truthful far.

"That's astir apt successful the vicinity of a mates hundred-thousand worth of mislaid revenue," helium said, adding that galore businesses are "suffering."

Osprey Wings provides flights for tourism, mining, the nationalist work assemblage and occurrence suppression. Thompson said it's tally by 25 radical crossed 994 planes, and services hundreds of businesses crossed areas north, eastbound and westbound of La Ronge and Mississippi.

Over the past fewer months, the institution has been helping occurrence chiefs and firefighters question astir to outfitters camps and sites that needed pumps acceptable up, Thompson said.

As the occurrence concern improves, helium said the adjacent precedence is to get backmost to concern and assistance the assemblage arsenic overmuch arsenic possible.

"Hopefully we tin get things immoderate semblance of normalcy backmost into our bluish community," Thompson said.

"If you've ever been to bluish Saskatchewan, it's conscionable astir apt 1 of the neatest experiences you'll ever person successful your lifetime."

Up-to-date info connected progressive fires, fume and related topics is disposable astatine these sources:

• Interactive Sask. progressive occurrence map.
• Fire information map.
• Fire bans.
• Environment and Climate Change Canada upwind alerts.
• Sask. Highway Hotline.
• Smoke forecast.
• Air quality.
• Tracking wildfires crossed Canada.