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NDP government to review Alberta Energy Regulator AlbertaPremierRachelNotley wants to address the conict- ing mandate of the provinces oil and gas regulator in an up- coming energy policy review. See page 6. Hay River hospital celebrates 50th anniversary Hay River celebrated the legacy of health care in the community on the 50th anni- versary of the H.H. Williams Hospital on Saturday. See page 14. FUEL STOLEN Fireghting in the South Slave was stalled after a fuel cache was raided. See page 2. Fort Smith rocker up for Indigenous Music Award Geronimo Paulette and Wil- liam Greenland are two mu- sicians from the NWT who have been nominated for In- digenous Music Awards. See page 13. Drought impacting Wood Buffalos whooping cranes Endangered whooping cranes have changed their nesting patterns due to drought and re in and around Wood Buf- falo National Park. See page 9. V IS IT W W W .N O R J.C A A national award winning independent newspaper serving northern Alberta and the Northwest Territories since 1977 1.00 June 30 2015 Vol. 39 No. 9 PhotoMeaganWohlberg Hay River Jean Marie River put on alert for possible evacuation due to res Number of res in NWT has doubled in one week By MEAGAN WOHLBERG The communities of Hay River and Jean Marie River have been advised to enact their emergency measures plan in preparation for possible evacuation due to nearby forest res. Lightning last week and over the weekend saw 75 new res in the ter- ritory doubling the total number of res that have burned since the beginning of the season. Of those 129 are still burning and a total of 182000 hectares have burned. Pervasive drought conditions across the southern half of the NWT have resulted in extreme re behav- iour that has thwarted initial attack measures by helicopters bombers and ground crews. In a normal situation because of the fire intensity crews can only withstand fires that have flames that go up to their eyes but in these cases here they were ex- periencing fires with flames that would get up into the trees and undertake crowning moving at a greater rate than the resources can slow the fire down said Richard Olsen fire operations manager with Environment and Natural Resources ENR. Extreme behaviour is moving at a faster rate than the resources you have available to calm the re. Re- ally the resources prove ineffective at that point and we have to pretty much pull off and reassess and look at other options. Hay River emergency measures enacted Such was the case south of Hay River where two res have grown together to become the Paradise Complex. That re escaped initial attack attempts on Saturday and is now in excess of 5000 hectares lo- cated just 10 km from the nearest town infrastructure. While an incident management team is doing work to create a bar- rier between the town and the fire - primarily cat guards and ignition operations to stall the growth of the fire - officials say an expected change in wind direction is likely to push the flames towards Hay River. We are looking at experienc- ing weather conditions that might change the direction of the fire and the wind Olsen said.The fire and the smoke will move to- wards the community and we have made recommendations to emergency measures that all their emergency processes in advis- ing the community and prepar- ing for risk to the community be put in place. Jean Marie River put on alert As of Monday afternoon a re 3 km northwest of Jean Marie River was also being pushed by winds to- wards the community. There was a recommendation that they be put on alert because of re risk Olsen said. Were up- dating emergency measures but any change in re behaviour may affect the community at this time. Seven tankers were deployed to the re on Sunday night and con- tinued work on it on Monday. Another series of res 20-30 km south of Fort Simpson known as the AntoineComplexarealsobeingpri- oritized by ENR crews. Two of the res have grown to 5000 hectares and have the potential to impact the community though Fort Simpson is currently not at risk. See Fire resources on page 3. Justin Lalonde of Yellowknife competes in the mens singles nal at the Fort Smith Open tennis tournament on Sunday afternoon. Lalonde came in second against Fort Smiths Bernie Bennett who has taken the title over Lalonde for the last three years. See more on page 19.