Ottawa, Ontario
The Honourable Bill Blair, President of the King's Privy Council for Canada and Minister of Emergency Preparedness has approved a Request for Federal Assistance from the Province of Alberta to support their efforts to combat the significant wildfire situation in the province.
Alberta is currently experiencing a wildfire season well above the seasonal average and has deployed all available provincial and local resources to respond to fires across the province, particularly in the northern and central parts of the province.
In response to this request for assistance, the Honourable Anita Anand, Minister of National Defence, authorized the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) to provide:
- personnel and resources to assist and enable fire fighting;
- airlift resources for mobility and logistical tasks, including the evacuation of isolated communities; and
- engineering support, including heavy equipment resources, as capacity allows.
CAF resources will be provided for an initial period of two weeks, with a one-week extension possible following a joint evaluation of the situation to determine if support is still required.
In addition to the CAF deployment, the federal government is also providing the following supports:
- Public Services and Procurement Canada will provide contracting support to the province for supplies or logistics.
- The Royal Canadian Mounted Police will continue to support with response efforts and, as the contracted police of jurisdiction, support matters of law enforcement.
- Employment and Social Development Canada will support impacted Canadians with enhanced Service Canada hours, outreach to evacuees, and deployment of mobile units to evacuation centres to support applications for services, such as employment insurance.
- Indigenous Service Canada's Emergency Management Assistance Program (EMAP) will support the response and recovery efforts for Alberta's on-reserve First Nations communities currently experiencing the effects of the wildland fires. Affected communities require prompt coordination of actions to protect the health, safety or welfare of all, and limit damages to property, infrastructure, and the environment. EMAP supports impacted communities through agency response via the wildland fire and the emergency management service agreements with the Province of Alberta, resource coordination, organizational structure and evacuee supports. Once the response phase is over, the Program will provide recovery support for repairs to on-reserve community infrastructure to restore to pre-event conditions, mitigation measures to infrastructure to minimize future impacts and personal losses.
- Public Health Agency of Canada's National Emergency Strategic Stockpile is engaged and has already shipped requested supplies and is standing by to provide more if required.
- Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada is working with the province of Alberta and telecommunications service providers to keep people connected.
- Parks Canada is sending an 18-member Incident Command Team to support the Province of Alberta. These wildland fire management specialists are trained to manage complex fires and other incidents. This deployment is being coordinated through the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre.
The Government Operations Centre is working to coordinate the federal response to the wildfire situation in Alberta and across the country. Officials are working closely with federal and provincial partners to coordinate this assistance.
