Winnie Cadieux lost her home and business to the fire.
She lived in Enterprise for 40 years and loved being on the highway junction for travellers to stop in and visit.
“I met people from all around the world,” she said. “If my walls were still up, you’d see that, because we used our walls as a guest book.”
A year on, Cadieux says there’s been barely any progress on restoring the community. Enterprise is a part of her identity, but she isn’t sure if she’ll return.
“How am I ever going to come back and have any semblance of the life that I had here before? It’s pretty much impossible.”
Cadieux thinks there should be better support for those without insurance — particularly as insurance rates increase while natural disasters become more frequent.
“Something has to be looked at for small communities, especially northern communities — not just N.W.T., but all across Canada,” she said.
“We’re getting nothing as uninsured people. Sucks to be us, I guess, that’s how I’m looking at it because [there] doesn’t seem to be an avenue to fight.”