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Heat not location factor in Peace River oilsands odour Recent research by the Al- berta Geological Survey gets to the bottom of odours and emissions in the Peace River oilsands area. See page 6. Astral photographer captures lights and tourist market NWT Tourism found its bea- con for Japanese Aurora tour- ism in an astral photographer who returned to the North last week. See page 19. THE FUTURE IS BRIGHT Solar project empowers Lubicon First Nation in Little Buffalo. See page 9. Medicines language shared at culture camp on the land TheNWTCreeandChipewyan Language Programs came to- gether over the weekend to share traditional medicine through language. See page 13. Signicant Canol oil discovery fails to sway companies A recent Signicant Discov- ery Declaration for oil in the Sahtu has echoed and faded as companies show no signs of interest in drilling. See page 7. 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 September 1 2015 Vol. 39 No. 18 Sovereignty exercise Operation Nanook deemed a success in Fort Smith By DALI CARMICHAEL After a week of simulations wherein municipal territorial and federal government players came together to save the town of Fort Smith from an out of control wild- re the community has declared its mock scenario over and emergency plan unbreakable. Operation Nanook the Canadian Armed Forces annual sovereignty mission in Canadas North was car- riedoutintheareafromAug.20to24. Not a whole lot needs xing Mayor Brad Brake concluded. This has been a fabulous exercise for the town in order to learn more about its emergency measures plan. They couldnt break it we tried to have them break the plan and they couldnt break it. Its very well done given the fact that its 16 years old. Inthescenarioawildrewassaid to be blazing furiously towards the community from just west of the airport but the highway was open and citizens were encouraged to evacuate by car if possible. Those who required public transportation were ushered into the community rec centre on Thursday where a system was organized to evacuate citizens by bus. RCMP and other territorial depart- ments in dealing with a number of staged scenarios or injections. Those included everything from irateresidentsrefusingtoleavetheir homes to ghts breaking out at Kel- lys gas station after high tensions communicationsfailureleftorganiz- ers unable to access any landlines or internetforcingthemtondsatellite communicationsintown.Theexercise came in handy when the very next day the bre-optic line to the com- munity was actually damaged leav- ing the town in that exact scenario. CAF members also spent a large amount of time Fire-Smarting key areas including clearing out dead treesinthebushbyTamaracCr.and around Axehandle Hill. Updates to emergency plan required Though the emergency plan was deemed unbreakable it wasnt to- tally infallible. Come next year we will have an updatedplananditwillbeabletohelp the citizens of the community even more so than it already has Brake said noting that it would be heavily inuencedbytheoutcomesofNanook. See Improvements on page 11. Around 100 Canadian Armed ForcesCAFmembersandCanadian Rangers from Behchoko Fort Reso- lutionandHayRiverwereshippedto town for the occasion. They assisted playersfromMunicipalandCommu- nity Affairs MACA Public Safety EnvironmentandNaturalResources ENRSmithsLandingFirstNation caused patrons to lose their cool while fueling up. Anumberofpublicinstitutionsin- cludingthehealthcentreandcorrec- tionalfacilitiesalsocarriedouttheir owntabletopexercisesandtookcon- structivecriticismfromthecontrac- torsthatdesignedOperationNanook. On Wednesday a simulated We tried to have them break the plan and they couldnt break it. Its very well done given the fact that its 16 years old. Fort Smith Mayor Brad Brake PhotoDaliCarmichael Christian Bouvier tries out some military equipment with M.Cpl. David MacDonald during a community barbecue to mark the end of Operation Nanook in Fort Smith on Aug. 28. For more stories and photos head to pages 10 and 11.