The federal government “will be there” to help Alberta fight roughly 100 wildfires currently blazing in the province, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says.
Ottawa’s commitment comes after the provincial government formally submitted a request for assistance, which Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair confirmed as receiving Monday afternoon.
Ottawa is also working with the Canadian Red Cross to set up a matching fund to help Albertans impacted by the blazes, Trudeau said.
“We will be there to help,” he said after speaking with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith earlier in the day.
“We talked a lot about the different ways the federal government can help, and we will be working to make sure that we’re supporting Albertans right across the province as necessary, as we always do. The federal government is there to be there for people, and we will continue to do that in Alberta and elsewhere where people are affected by extreme weather events.”
Around 100 wildfires continued to burn in Alberta on Monday, with thousands forced to flee from their homes.
More than 40 structures, mostly homes, have been lost on the Little Red River Cree Nation, which includes three communities in northern Alberta. In Fox Lake, about 550 kilometres north of Edmonton, the province said a 4,400-hectare wildfire destroyed 20 homes, an RCMP detachment, a store and the community’s water treatment plant.
Cooler temperatures and a bit of rain over the next few days are expected to deliver some relief for firefighters, but provincial officials warned the reprieve isn’t expected to last long, and lightning is sparking additional blazes.
A provincial state of emergency was declared Saturday.
Blair said Alberta needs additional firefighters, heavy equipment for infrastructure, assistance for airlifts and additional policing. He promised further details later in the day.
“We have a rather robust, well-established program of requests for assistance and we now have that document from the province, but the work on that began a number of days ago,” he said.
“Many of those resources have been mobilized over the past few days. We believe we’ll be able to act on the request from the province as quickly as possible, but we know many of the organizations and federal departments responsible for delivering those resources have been getting ready for the past few days.”
So far this year, wildfires have burned about 380,000 hectares across the province.
— with files from The Canadian Press