- Hon Brooke van Velden
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says New Zealand is sending a seven-person specialist team to Manitoba on Wednesday 9 July to support Canada in its response to severe wildfires across the country.
"Canada is dealing with an intense and escalating wildfire season, with fires raging across multiple provinces," says Ms van Velden.
"More than 20,000 people have been displaced from their homes.
"The scale of these fires is hard to imagine, with just one of the fires having burnt 300,000 hectares. That is almost two Stewart Islands.
"At the request of the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre, Fire and Emergency New Zealand's specialist team will support the firefighting effort by managing Canadian fire crews and overseeing safety and logistics."
This deployment will mark 330 personnel deployed to North American wildfires since the establishment of Fire and Emergency New Zealand in 2017.
"Fire and Emergency remains in close contact with Canada, and I am advised that they expect to be sending a larger firefighting task force later this week.
"I want to thank these firefighters who are offering their support to our Canadian counterparts at this time. Their efforts will make a real difference to the communities in Canada," says Ms van Velden.
