Joanne Garnett is going back to work in Fort McMurray to help rebuild, but the conditions on the ground mean her son can’t go with her.
Garnett flew to Elmsdale, N.S. to stay with her family after she fled Fort McMurray with her son, Jordan, and her dad, Darrell, last week. She works for the municipality and her dad works in the oil sands.
On Wednesday, officials in Alberta confirmed the fire in Fort McMurray was mostly beaten and Garnett was tapped to go back to work to help the city rebuild. She’s booked flights to go back on Thursday but has to leave Jordan behind with his grandparents because conditions on the ground aren’t safe.
“I’m going to have to leave my four-year-old here so I can go home and rebuild because I can’t do it with him there,” she said.
Garnett and her dad shared the mortgage on a house in the Abasand neighbourhood, but the fire ripped through it a week ago, leaving nothing but the foundation and the shell of a pickup truck.
Garnett is leaving her son in Nova Scotia indefinitely while she goes back to work.
“To go back with him and try to find childcare and being on the shift, fly-in and fly-out wouldn’t be doable,” Garnett said. “He’s going to have to stay here.”
Garnett will live at a nearby camp working alternating weeks in Fort McMurray. She says she’ll come back to visit Jordan on the weeks she doesn’t work. She hopes to rebuild her house quickly but says she’s already planning for a long wait and has registered Jordan in school in Nova Scotia for September.