Vehicles leave Yellowknife on the only highway in or out of town. The blaze has also prompted the evacuation of several other nearby towns. Photograph: Pat Kane/Reuters By Hina Alam THE CANADIAN PRESS Residents of the Northwest Territories are feeling the effect of the news vacuum on Facebook as they flee communities that are under threat by wildfires. But industry observers say the regional media landscape was barren long before Meta, Facebook’s parent company, pulled news content from its platforms in Canada, and that the current situation highlights a long-standing dearth of local news coverage. Up to 50 per cent of Canadians use Facebook to find out what’s happening in cities and towns across the country, Dwayne Winseck, professor of communication and media studies at Carleton University, said Thursday in…