Western Standard - Alberta Wildfire Update： Current Challenges and Responses

00:00:00.000 Thank you.

00:00:30.000 You

00:01:00.000 Hey everyone, like you I'm watching the tragedy unfold in Jasper and my thoughts are with

00:01:09.180 the people who have evacuated and are watching this as well and also those who are still

00:01:13.720 in the community.

00:01:14.720 Make sure if you can leave, please leave safely.

00:01:17.720 Take care of yourself.

00:01:18.720 Also to the emergency responders and firefighters, we wish you all the luck in fighting this

00:01:25.080 fire and keeping safe as well.

00:01:26.560 I've been in constant contact over the last couple of days not only with my team but also reaching

00:01:32.320 out to our federal counterparts where we're working together with the city of Jasper as

00:01:36.800 well with Parks Canada and our own Alberta Emergency Management Agency and we're going

00:01:41.520 We're gonna do everything we can to put this fire out.

00:02:11.520 I don't know.

00:02:41.520 We may need one or two, so once I know, I'll let you know.

00:02:54.000 Okay, good.

00:02:56.700 Okay, thanks, Blake.

00:03:03.540 What about the Nodwell berm?

00:03:05.760 I'm stepping away from the radio for about five minutes.

00:03:35.760 Thank you.

00:04:05.760 Hey everyone, like you I'm watching the tragedy unfold in Jasper and my thoughts are with

00:04:19.120 the people who have evacuated and are watching this as well and also those who are still

00:04:23.640 in the community.

00:04:24.640 Make sure if you can leave, please leave safely.

00:04:27.640 Take care of yourself.

00:04:28.640 Also to the emergency responders and firefighters, we wish you all the luck in fighting this

00:04:35.000 fire and keeping safe as well i've been in constant contact over the last couple of days

00:04:39.960 not only with my team but also reaching out to our federal counterparts where we're working together

00:04:44.920 with the city of jasper as well with parks canada and our own alberta emergency management agency

00:04:50.920 and we're going to do everything we can to put this fire out.

00:05:20.920 I don't know.

00:05:50.920 We may need one or two, so once I know, I'll let you know.

00:06:03.960 Okay, thanks Blake.

00:06:13.520 What about the Nodwell berm?

00:06:15.700 the notwell going down to the petrol can and just wait for there

00:06:23.380 all right i'm on my way yeah that uh there's another water truck parked there i think

00:06:31.640 there's mom and dad's house

00:06:33.940 i'm stepping away from the radio for about five minutes

00:06:45.700 Thank you.

00:07:15.700 Hey everyone, like you I'm watching the tragedy unfold in Jasper and my thoughts are with

00:07:29.020 the people who have evacuated and are watching this as well and also those who are still

00:07:33.540 in the community.

00:07:34.540 Make sure if you can leave, please leave safely.

00:07:37.540 Take care of yourself.

00:07:38.540 Also to the emergency responders and firefighters, we wish you all the luck in fighting this

00:07:44.900 fire and keeping safe as well i've been in constant contact over the last couple of days

00:07:49.940 not only with my team but also reaching out to our federal counterparts where we're working together

00:07:54.820 with the city of jasper as well with parks canada and our own alberta emergency management agency

00:08:00.820 And we're going to do everything we can to put this fire out.

00:08:30.820 so

00:09:00.820 We may need one or two, so once I know, I'll let you know.

00:09:13.820 Okay, good.

00:09:16.820 Okay, thanks Blake.

00:09:21.820 What about the Nodwell perm?

00:09:29.820 The Nodwell goes down to the Petrocan and just waits there.

00:09:36.760 All right, I'm on my way.

00:09:38.840 Yeah, there's another water truck parked there, I think.

00:09:42.740 Where's Mom and Dad's house?

00:09:45.900 I'm stepping away from the radio for about five minutes.

00:09:59.820 Thank you.

00:10:29.820 Hey everyone, like you I'm watching the tragedy unfold in Jasper and my thoughts are with

00:10:38.900 the people who have evacuated and are watching this as well and also those who are still

00:10:43.440 in the community.

00:10:44.440 Make sure if you can leave, please leave safely.

00:10:47.440 Take care of yourself.

00:10:48.440 Also to the emergency responders and firefighters, we wish you all the luck in fighting this

00:10:54.800 fire and keeping safe as well.

00:10:56.340 been in constant contact over the last couple of days not only with my team but also reaching out

00:11:02.100 to our federal counterparts where we're working together with the city of Jasper as well with

00:11:06.980 Parks Canada and our own Alberta Emergency Management Agency and we're going to do everything

00:11:11.700 we can to put this fire out.

00:11:41.700 I don't know.

00:12:11.700 We may need one or two, so once I know, I'll let you know.

00:12:23.700 Good.

00:12:24.700 Good.

00:12:25.700 Okay.

00:12:26.700 Thanks, Blake.

00:12:28.700 What about the Nodwell perm?

00:12:35.700 the notwell going down to the petrol can and just wait for there

00:12:43.180 all right i'm on my way yeah that's uh there's another water truck parked there i think

00:12:51.460 there's mom and dad's house

00:12:53.740 i'm stepping away from the radio for about five minutes

00:13:05.700 Thank you.

00:13:35.700 Hey everyone, like you I'm watching the tragedy unfold in Jasper and my thoughts are with

00:13:48.820 the people who have evacuated and are watching this as well and also those who are still

00:13:53.380 in the community.

00:13:54.380 Make sure if you can leave, please leave safely.

00:13:57.380 Take care of yourself.

00:13:58.380 Also to the emergency responders and firefighters, we wish you all the luck in fighting this

00:14:04.740 fire and keeping safe as well i've been in constant contact over the last couple of days

00:14:09.700 not only with my team but also reaching out to our federal counterparts where we're working together

00:14:14.660 with the city of jasper as well with parks canada and our own alberta emergency management agency

00:14:20.660 And we're going to do everything we can to put this fire out.

00:14:50.660 So

00:15:20.660 We may need one or two, so once I know, I'll let you know.

00:15:33.660 Okay, good.

00:15:36.660 Okay, thank you, Blake.

00:15:43.660 What about the Nodwell perm?

00:15:49.660 The Nodwell goes down to the Petrocan and just waits there.

00:15:56.620 Alright, I'm on my way.

00:15:58.680 Yeah, there's another water truck parked there, I think.

00:16:02.560 Where's Mom and Dad's house?

00:16:05.740 I'm stepping away from the radio for about five minutes.

00:16:19.660 Thank you.

00:16:49.660 Hey everyone, like you I'm watching the tragedy unfold in Jasper and my thoughts are with

00:16:59.080 the people who have evacuated and are watching this as well and also those who are still

00:17:03.640 in the community.

00:17:04.640 Make sure if you can leave, please leave safely.

00:17:07.660 Take care of yourself.

00:17:08.660 Also to the emergency responders and firefighters, we wish you all the luck in fighting this

00:17:15.100 fire and keeping safe as well.

00:17:16.600 been in constant contact over the last couple of days not only with my team but also reaching out

00:17:22.520 to our federal counterparts where we're working together with the city of Jasper as well with

00:17:27.400 Parks Canada and our own Alberta Emergency Management Agency and we're going to do everything

00:17:32.120 we can to put this fire out.

00:18:02.120 Let's go.

00:18:32.120 We may need one or two, so once I know, I'll let you know.

00:18:44.120 Good.

00:18:45.120 Okay, thanks.

00:18:47.120 Thank you.

00:18:49.120 What about the Nodwell perm?

00:18:55.120 The Nodwell is going on to the Petrocan and just wait for there.

00:19:07.280 Alright, I'm on my way.

00:19:09.380 Yeah, there's another water truck parked there, I think.

00:19:13.320 There's Mom and Dad's house.

00:19:16.460 I'm stepping away from the radio for about five minutes.

00:19:25.120 We'll be right back.

00:19:55.120 Hey everyone, like you I'm watching the tragedy unfold in Jasper and my thoughts are with

00:20:09.180 the people who have evacuated and are watching this as well and also those who are still

00:20:13.780 in the community.

00:20:14.780 Make sure if you can leave, please leave safely.

00:20:17.780 Take care of yourself.

00:20:18.780 Also to the emergency responders and firefighters, we wish you all the luck in fighting this

00:20:25.100 this fire and keeping safe as well.

00:20:26.880 I've been in constant contact over the last couple of days,

00:20:30.420 not only with my team,

00:20:31.740 but also reaching out to our federal counterparts.

00:20:34.280 We're working together with the city of Jasper,

00:20:37.140 as well with Parks Canada,

00:20:38.660 and we're gonna do everything we can to put this fire out.

00:20:55.100 We'll be right back.

00:21:25.100 We may need one or two, so once I know, I'll let you know.

00:21:53.240 I think it's off. Good.

00:21:57.240 Okay, thank you, Blake.

00:22:03.240 What about the Nodwell perm?

00:22:09.240 The Nodwell goes down to the Petrocan and just wait by there.

00:22:15.240 Alright, I'm on my way.

00:22:17.240 Yeah, there's another water truck parked there, I think.

00:22:21.240 I'm stepping away from the radio for about five minutes.

00:22:51.240 a wall of flames. There is no denying that this is the worst nightmare for any community.

00:22:57.780 To the residents of Jasper and those displaced far from home looking at the images of your town

00:23:03.740 on TV and online, the feelings of loss and fear and loneliness must be overwhelming.

00:23:13.180 But you are not alone. All Albertans are with you. For many generations, the town of Jasper

00:23:19.980 and the parks surrounding it

00:23:22.300 have been a source of pride

00:23:24.780 with some of the most beautiful scenery

00:23:31.220 in the entire

00:23:33.960 in the world

00:23:35.980 our grandparents visited to experience

00:23:40.760 the majesty of this place

00:23:42.720 with its mountains

00:23:46.820 and lakes and meadows

00:23:53.240 they took our parents who then took us

00:24:04.480 to this special spot

00:24:07.720 that they'd spent time in as children

00:24:11.640 and now we take our own kids and our own loved ones

00:24:16.060 and visitors from around the world to feel that same feeling that you get

00:24:25.180 with your first glimpse of the mountains on the horizon

00:24:35.260 a feeling that even though you've just left home you're coming home

00:24:46.060 and so although those of us who experience jasper as visitors can't imagine what it feels like

00:24:56.700 to be a jasperite right now

00:25:01.420 we share this sense of loss with all of those who live in the town who care for it and who

00:25:08.940 who have helped build it.

00:25:12.460 Jasper, we will continue to stand by you

00:25:15.140 and as everyone works to get their feet back under them

00:25:18.780 and as we look forward to recovery.

00:25:22.680 Right now, the wildfire is still out of control

00:25:25.100 and crews are working in dangerous conditions

00:25:27.980 to try and protect critical infrastructure in the town.

00:25:31.800 So to the brave men and women currently on the ground

00:25:34.480 in Jasper, I want to express my deep gratitude

00:25:38.020 and the gratitude of all Albertans.

00:25:42.920 Whether you are part of the initial efforts

00:25:45.900 or whether you were activated

00:25:48.620 and drove in there last night or early this morning,

00:25:52.480 there really are not enough words to express our thanks

00:25:55.520 and our wishes for your safety and your success.

00:25:59.160 Once again, you've put yourselves on the front lines

00:26:01.840 in a show of true heroism.

00:26:04.060 Thank you for your bravery and your commitment

00:26:06.360 keeping alberton safe well i will leave the specific details on the situation and the efforts

00:26:13.160 of those fighting it to ministers todd lowen and minister mike ellis as well as to our alberta

00:26:18.520 wildfire officials here with us today stephen lacroix from the emergency management agency

00:26:22.520 and christie tucker from forest let me assure you that alberta is doing all that we can our

00:26:27.560 emergency management cabinet committee meeting has been meeting daily for the last several days

00:26:32.440 and we will continue to do so i have been in communication with the federal minister of

00:26:37.880 public safety dominic leblanc he's the minister of public safety democratic institutions and

00:26:42.680 intergovernmental affairs uh the emergency alberta emergency management agency jasper

00:26:47.960 mayor richard ireland and many others i understand that minister leblanc is being briefed as we speak

00:26:55.160 and i look forward to meeting with minister harjit sajan here in edmonton later this afternoon

00:27:00.280 where he will join us at our command center alberta stands ready to assist in every way that we can

00:27:06.040 and i have asked minister leblanc to move to a unified command structure so that alberta

00:27:11.960 can better help we hope to hear a positive response from parks canada on this and in

00:27:17.560 the meantime we will continue to provide any and all support that they request in any way that we

00:27:23.240 can i tell you i can tell you that alberta wildfire supported the parks canada incident

00:27:28.920 management team yesterday they report that the situation on the ground overnight was extremely

00:27:33.640 volatile as we continue to battle the fire our government will move to daily updates with

00:27:38.920 ministers lowen and ellis as well as alberta wildfire officials and we will continue with

00:27:44.760 our daily written updates as well to the residents families and business owners who call jasper home

00:27:51.320 we will recover from this to the men and women on the front line and at all operational levels thank

00:27:56.680 you for your courage and commitment and to those in alberta and around the world who have

00:28:03.160 experienced the magic of jasmine

00:28:07.880 the magic is not lost and it never will be alberta's government will provide the support

00:28:13.080 needed to families and community to recover and to rebuild stronger than ever so that future

00:28:18.600 generations can continue to experience this one-of-a-kind community and to feel the magic

00:28:25.480 of being able to come home thank you and i'll turn it over to minister ellis

00:28:34.120 well thank you premier and thank you for those heartfelt words um thank you everyone for joining

00:28:39.000 us today the news that we're hearing out of jasper is deeply saddening for all of us

00:28:46.440 especially for all the residents who call this beautiful part of the province home and i want

00:28:52.200 all of you to know that albertus government is here for you and we are doing everything that we

00:28:56.040 can to fight this fire to save as much as save as much of jasper as we can jasper holds a very

00:29:02.440 special place in all of our hearts as the premier mentioned we all have a memory of our first visit

00:29:07.400 and being struck by the wonder of this awesome beauty and the surrounding natural landscape

00:29:12.200 which is why this fire and the destruction it has caused is so devastating for all of us

00:29:17.160 the municipality of jasper and parks canada as the unified command for this wildfire response

00:29:23.000 will be in the best position to provide details on the exact impacts of the town and the national

00:29:27.800 park officials at all levels continue to work together to protect everything that we can and

00:29:33.000 of course to support evacuees i commend wild wildland firefighters who are working tirelessly

00:29:40.040 to prevent the the fire from reaching our town sites throughout alberta the alberta emergency

00:29:46.120 management agency has helped the municipality request structural firefighters from hinton

00:29:51.640 edmonton and 32 other municipalities plus lake land college and industrial firefighters from

00:29:57.320 across the province as relates to jasper i assure you that we have made efforts to mobilize every

00:30:03.560 resource available to bring relief and support to the community the provincial emergency coordination

00:30:09.560 center is now at a level four activation to ensure full coordination across the provincial government

00:30:14.920 our staff helped arrange staging grounds meeting points hotels for all those involved in the

00:30:20.200 situation on the ground and we continue to have field officers embedded within the local incident

00:30:25.320 management team to help make connections between local authorities first responders government

00:30:29.880 ministries and municipal resources in other areas i want to reiterate that alberta health services

00:30:35.480 and emergency medical services safely evacuated patients from the area including both acute care

00:30:41.240 patients and designated support living residents patients and designated supporting living

00:30:47.320 residents were transported to health care facilities in edson and hinton two patients

00:30:53.640 were flown to prince george we're also aware that the seniors lodge was evacuated separately

00:30:59.320 albert health services has contacted families of those impacted and will continue to provide

00:31:04.520 information as needed reception centers for evacuees have been up and running in grand

00:31:10.520 prairie calgary edmonton since tuesday staff are working around the clock to provide mental health

00:31:16.120 supports for all those impacted municipal uh municipal emergency social services teams located

00:31:22.440 at each reception center have been welcoming evacuees for the past few days they're providing

00:31:27.320 support for immediate basic needs with a focus on providing food and water a place to stay

00:31:32.200 supports for physical and emotional well-being i'd like to commend and thank the cities of edmonton

00:31:37.640 calgary grand prairie for stepping up and accommodating their fellow albertans at a time

00:31:43.800 and to all other municipalities who have stepped up to offer support in the firefighting effort

00:31:49.400 thank you thank you on behalf of all albertans apart from the situation in jasper the municipal

00:31:54.840 district of bighorn issued an evacuation order for the area east of highway 40 and west of ghost

00:32:00.920 public land access point the reception center continues to be open to evacuees in water valley

00:32:05.880 community hall an evacuation alert is also an effect for residents of the surrounding area

00:32:11.320 meaning that they should be prepared to evacuate with little notice there are resources that can

00:32:16.920 help people to get ready that's at alberta.ca slash be ready on that webpage the public can

00:32:23.960 find everything from a list of items to pack details on how to prepare your pets your vehicles

00:32:29.240 in the event of an evacuation in addition to the areas i previously mentioned evacuation orders are

00:32:35.640 also remain in effect for little red river crea nation including the communities of john door

00:32:41.080 prairie fox lake and garden river the municipal district of opportunities evacuation order of

00:32:46.520 chippewan lake is also still in place the evacuation order for janvier 194 part of the chippewan prairie

00:32:52.680 first nation and the evacuation alert for the hamlet of janvier were both lifted by the local

00:32:58.440 authorities this morning after some helpful rainfall we continue to ask residents in all

00:33:04.120 affected communities to listen to local officials follow any evacuation orders and instructions that

00:33:09.720 you may receive follow the alberta emergency alert app and website your local municipality

00:33:16.760 for evacuation information and available services alberta 511 also provides an up-to-date

00:33:22.840 information on highway closures and conditions the estimated number of evacuees province-wide

00:33:28.120 remains at more than 17 500. this number is still limited to people who are displaced from their

00:33:35.000 residence or who need supports while there were an estimated 25 000 people in the jasper national

00:33:41.560 park at the time of the evacuation order the vast majority of these people were visitors

00:33:46.040 with other places to return to i'll reiterate that to those under an evacuation order to please

00:33:53.000 register online as an evacuee at emergency registration dot alberta dot ca doing so will

00:34:00.760 help access resources and important information like updates and re-entry plans individuals who

00:34:06.360 are a part of a mandatory evacuation order exceeding a minimum of seven days including

00:34:11.320 temporary foreign workers are eligible to receive a one-time payment of twelve hundred and fifty

00:34:15.640 dollars for each adult and additional five hundred dollars for each child under the age of 18.

00:34:20.120 residents of the following communities can apply for emergency evacuation payments

00:34:24.600 the garden river community within a little red river crea nation javier 194 which is part of the

00:34:31.240 chippewan prairie first nation and chippewan lake we are ever we are ever and forever grateful for

00:34:40.120 the work of a wildfire personnel local authorities and emergency officials our thoughts are of course

00:34:45.640 with families and the businesses and workers who are wrestling with the thoughts of their own homes

00:34:51.560 and livelihoods and their their sense of security but in times like these we invariably witness an

00:34:58.600 unwavering spirit of community and that's what we've seen here in alberta the bravery of our

00:35:03.160 firefighters the dedication the first responders emergency management personnel and the compassion

00:35:07.880 of emts and social support workers is truly inspirational i understand that many albertans

00:35:13.400 are are facing extremely uh trying time at present know this uh your fellow albertans are with you

00:35:19.800 albert's government is here for you along with our various interagency partners we will continue to

00:35:25.640 work diligently to support you protect your communities and i thank you and i'd like to

00:35:31.000 now invite minister lewin to make a few comments

00:35:40.360 thank you very much minister ellis and thanks everyone for being here for this

00:35:43.720 morning's wildfire update yesterday marked a truly heartbreaking

00:35:47.320 day in our province's history as late wednesday afternoon the wildfire in

00:35:51.240 jasper national park made contact with jasper town site

00:35:54.680 the images we're seeing out of jasper are devastating and my heart goes out to

00:35:58.040 the community words of any kind seem insufficient right now but to the people of jasper i'm

00:36:03.240 incredibly sorry for your loss i'd also like to say that we're grateful to community members and

00:36:07.800 visitors for following local alerts and evacuating when they did while the pain of what's occurring

00:36:13.320 right now is overwhelming we can all be grateful that residents and visitors are safe we're

00:36:18.440 thankful too for everything our brave firefighters and emergency responders did to try to battle the

00:36:23.160 fire we know without these firefighters things could have been even worse this wildfire is under

00:36:28.760 the command of parks canada and we are assisting them with all available assets and have offered

00:36:33.560 up any help that they require alberta's government will continue to lend support to firefighting

00:36:38.520 operations in the region so far we've sent firefighters support personnel water trucks

00:36:43.960 a dozer group helicopters and air tankers to assist with response on the jasper wildfire

00:36:49.800 Alberta's government is also sending an incident management team to help assess the situation

00:36:54.040 and we have personnel and resources standing by to help as needed. I'd also like to thank our

00:36:59.000 federal partners for responding as quickly as they did to our urgent request for help

00:37:02.760 from the Canadian Armed Forces. We're currently strategizing the best way to utilize these

00:37:07.880 firefighting resources. Alberta once again finds itself in a difficult and dangerous situation due

00:37:13.480 to wildfires. Heightened wildfire danger and activity have taken their toll on the well-being

00:37:17.960 of countless albertans and communities and danger levels look like they'll remain high in many areas

00:37:24.200 of the for the foreseeable future alberta currently has over 170 active wildfires burning throughout

00:37:30.600 the province with more than 50 of these classified as out of control many of the wildfires we're

00:37:35.720 seeing at this time of the year are lightning caused and we unfortunately can't control the

00:37:39.880 weather but what we can do as a province is exercise extreme caution now more than ever

00:37:45.240 make sure you follow all local advisories and restrictions while it may not always feel like

00:37:50.440 it our actions and choices as albertans play a crucial role in keeping our province safe

00:37:56.040 preventing further human-caused wildfires and doing what we can to support our emergency

00:38:01.000 responders will allow them to do their jobs more effectively before i hand things over to christy

00:38:07.720 tucker i want to say once again how incredibly grateful we are for the work of all wildfire

00:38:12.760 personnel local authorities and emergency officials who are battling wildfires across

00:38:17.480 the province to albertans to keep albertans safe thank you as well to our provincial federal and

00:38:23.080 international partners who did not hesitate to send their highly experienced and trained

00:38:27.160 wildland firefighters to support our hard-working alberta personnel the situation unfolding is in

00:38:33.080 jasper is gun gut-wrenching nothing will change that but to the residents of jasper know that

00:38:38.440 Alberta is with you. Thank you. Thank you Minister. There are 176 wildfires burning in the forest

00:38:51.960 protection area of Alberta. 54 of those are out of control. 50 are being held and 69 are under

00:38:59.400 control. Rain in the northern half of the province has reduced some of the wildfire danger that we've

00:39:06.200 seen there over the past week but the danger remains extreme in the northeast and the south

00:39:11.800 of the province there's still smoke in the air which may cause concerns for people around air

00:39:17.880 quality for information about the air in your area you can visit wildfire smoke information

00:39:24.680 on alberta.ca we've seen this week the effect that strong winds can have

00:39:32.040 on the intensity and spread of a wildfire we're expecting more of those winds in the province

00:39:37.800 today which will raise the fire danger for those areas particularly that didn't get much rain

00:39:44.200 as others have said we're grateful to the nearly 1900 alberta firefighters contractors and support

00:39:51.640 staff who have been working hard in heat and difficult conditions this wildfire season

00:39:57.480 We're also grateful to the Australians who arrived this weekend and will be welcoming

00:40:04.600 at least 400 additional firefighters from overseas in the coming days.

00:40:11.920 100 firefighters from Jalisco, Mexico will arrive today, 200 from South Africa will be

00:40:18.460 here tomorrow, and another 100 from Australia and New Zealand are expected Sunday and Monday.

00:40:25.420 In addition, we welcome any assistance offered from the Canadian Armed Forces.

00:40:31.080 These resources will be sent around the province to areas where they will be most effective

00:40:35.920 in the wildfire response.

00:40:39.300 Alberta Wildfire has been actively supporting Parks Canada in their response to the wildfires

00:40:44.240 in Jasper.

00:40:46.320 As the Minister mentioned, we provided water trucks, heavy equipment, helicopters, unit

00:40:51.360 crews and offered air tanker and night vision equipped helicopter support we've also helped

00:40:57.280 with wildfire intelligence and in assisting relocation of the incident management team in

00:41:02.320 jasper this is a high priority wildfire and we have aircraft firefighters and more support staff

00:41:10.080 standing by to help an incident management team is mobilizing today and tomorrow in order to support

00:41:16.960 that response the loss in jasper is felt by everyone in the wildfire family as it is by

00:41:22.720 all albertans but we know we have a job to do and our firefighters and support staff

00:41:28.320 will be out there doing it today and for the rest of the season whatever it brings thank you

00:41:36.880 thank you we'll now enter the media q a portion we'll start off here with questions in the room

00:41:41.280 before going over to the phone so just a microphone in the middle of the room here

00:41:45.200 and we'll go to our first question at the mic please see your name and uh outlet

00:41:49.200 now renisa with ctv edmonton this is for the premier we just were looking for some clarification

00:41:54.560 when it comes to who calls the shots for this fire when it was first detected when it was

00:41:59.760 inching towards town because it is a federal park who calls the shots who is in charge of this right

00:42:05.680 now for this firefight uh parks canada is in unified command with the municipality of jasper

00:42:12.240 and we are providing whatever assistance that they ask for. I think Minister Lowen indicated

00:42:18.160 the ways in which we provided some support. We've positioned our equipment and we will remain on

00:42:24.160 standby to do whatever it is that they request. Minister Harjit Sajjan is coming today and we're

00:42:30.480 going to talk about moving so that we can also be integrated in that unified command. We'll see if

00:42:36.080 we can move towards that. It will allow for us to just be more integrated in the decision making on

00:42:42.000 that and you talked about a unified command center what is the reasoning for that how it would help

00:42:48.480 like with provincial and federal supports and you know kind of talking about when you mentioned that

00:42:55.280 the feds are in charge but you guys also called for military support so where who who makes that

00:43:01.520 call for an earlier call on that we um we had i'd been in touch with the prime minister's office

00:43:06.720 through my staff. Minister Ellis had been in touch with his counterpart and Managing Director

00:43:14.400 Stephen Lacroix had been in touch with the military as of July 18th, letting them know

00:43:19.600 that a call might come in. The ultimate decision on who to bring resources in at the moment

00:43:26.960 is with Parks Canada in Unified Command with the municipality of Jasper. If we were able to be

00:43:34.160 part of unified command there's just a few things that um when i raised it with dominic leblanc

00:43:38.640 we can't just send uh equipment into their into federal airspace without coordination you can't

00:43:45.120 send in unmanned aerial aerial vehicles which we use with infrared we can't send in helicopters

00:43:50.320 with night vision we can't send in water bombers without being integrated with them that's one of

00:43:54.400 the reasons we um also are very quick to respond with dozers to be able to create fire guards and

00:43:59.760 and so we we can't do that without them giving the order that to assist in building those fire

00:44:05.680 guards and putting dozers around we also have a bunch of new equipment as i've mentioned we do

00:44:11.040 night vision helicopters to allow us to get a sense of where the fire is so that we can place

00:44:15.120 crews we would be able to bring that to bear we have also changed to doing night firefighting we

00:44:20.160 found that we have the ability to get ahead of the fires when there's a night firefighting they

00:44:25.760 don't do that um as i understand it with parks canada so that would be another thing that we

00:44:29.600 would be able to bring to bear and then we also have a lot of resources with the uh urban wildfire

00:44:34.960 interface we've got we put an rfp out to four different companies that are able to put essentially

00:44:40.160 a wall of water up to match the wall of fire and so these are the kind of resources that we

00:44:44.720 would bring to be to bear as part of unified command darcy robchan city news i think this

00:44:52.400 might be for christy tucker but can you speak to any impact at all that the rain in jasper has had

00:44:58.880 if any on the situation there well i i can't say precipitation is always welcome in that it

00:45:07.120 increases the humidity even if it doesn't fall directly enough waterfalls on the fire to really

00:45:14.000 suppress the the activity fully of the fire but it raising the humidity does tend to lower fire

00:45:21.440 behavior i saw a statement from parks canada today and they are really best place to speak to the

00:45:28.480 exact conditions on the fire but they did say that they did receive some rain reports in the area

00:45:34.640 say there was rain on and off overnight but it really wasn't sufficient in order to to really

00:45:40.800 make a humongous change there in the fire that they're dealing with so this is still

00:45:46.800 obviously a long-term firefight for now my next question will be for one of the ministers or the

00:45:51.600 premier perhaps but just with the level of destruction that we're seeing in jasper can

00:45:55.440 you talk about the potential to expand uh benefits for evacuees who may be away from home for a long

00:46:00.960 time well one of the the ways in which we support evacuees is that we we set up the emergency

00:46:06.960 response centers as minister ellis mentioned we have them in grand prairie edmonton and calgary

00:46:13.040 we also provide support for them to be able to go to hotels and be able to get meals our program

00:46:20.000 kicks in after day seven twelve hundred and fifty dollars per adult 500 per child and so there's

00:46:25.760 already three communities that have been out seven days or longer that are going to qualify for that

00:46:30.400 and minister ellis mentioned that but we we have a long-term recovery that we'll have to work with

00:46:36.720 our federal counterparts on where we're seeing potentially 30 to 50 percent structural damage

00:46:43.280 to give you some idea i mean you've seen the images as i have we haven't we have to we don't

00:46:47.520 know particularly which structures have been have been damaged and which ones have been destroyed

00:46:52.560 but that's going to be a significant rebuild and significant displacement for a long period of time

00:46:58.800 fire is is one of those types of hazards that is normally covered by insurance and so we'll

00:47:04.560 integrate with insurance companies to make sure people have the long-term support to be outside

00:47:09.120 and then we'll have to have a conversation uh with uh with our cabinets if there's if there's any uh

00:47:14.640 gaps that need to need to be filled did you have any more to say on that minister ellis

00:47:21.520 yeah sorry i should just mention you can add if you want i'll i believe we've lined up a call with

00:47:25.760 the prime minister for 2 30 today and minister harjit sajan will be here as well so um and i've

00:47:31.520 been in touch with my with the intergovernmental affairs minister dominic leblanc who and we'll do

00:47:36.480 a briefing afterwards so at the moment uh we still have to put all the fires out we still have to deal

00:47:42.160 with the immediate emergency and make sure that there isn't more structural damage and then

00:47:46.880 once that's stabilized we'll have to do an assessment to get into recovery

00:47:52.320 yeah go ahead hey thanks lisa johnson with the canadian press premier you mentioned 30 to 60

00:47:58.080 structural damage i'm wondering if you can give us a few more details of what critical

00:48:02.480 infrastructure is left in the town that now needs to be protected all i can say and we haven't had

00:48:09.200 a line of sight on what has happened as you probably saw when structural firefighting is

00:48:13.520 very different because when structures start to burn it sets off a toxic amount of of chemicals

00:48:20.560 in the air so many of the parks canada officials had to leave last night and so there was structural

00:48:27.040 firefighters that remained um i think what you're seeing is just some of the images online that

00:48:32.240 some of those folks on the ground have been able to to take and post but we we don't have any more

00:48:37.920 confirmation other than what we've all seen on twitter we're going to be making sure that we get

00:48:44.880 a full briefing from parks canada i understand that there's emergency meeting of the dms with

00:48:51.040 Minister LeBlanc right now we we had we've been told that Parks Canada is

00:48:56.920 arranging for some kind of more formal briefing I don't think that they've

00:48:59.620 pinned down a time on that yet but that will they'll be the ones who have the

00:49:02.920 direct line of sight on what the structural damage looks like and just on

00:49:07.300 that as well I don't know if you can provide any more information but those

00:49:10.240 people those folks who left last night because of the issues that you mentioned

00:49:15.880 can you speak to what operationally is being done now are they coming back to

00:49:20.260 jasper to assist or it's probably yeah so the firefighters that left for the wildland uh

00:49:29.540 firefighters and uh there's no uh we haven't heard when they'll be coming back in

00:49:35.780 right now the the focus is on the structures within jasper and that'll be the focus uh right now

00:49:43.220 uh i i expect that the wildland firefighters will be back in uh shortly to be able to take care of

00:49:49.140 the actual wildfire itself and but again right now the focus is on structural

00:50:00.020 we did have two unit group crews which are crews of 20 firefighters that were in jasper working on

00:50:06.340 the wildland aspect of this fire i have heard from them we've had a check-in with them obviously

00:50:14.340 regarding what they experienced last night and they are ready to go back to work

00:50:19.140 let me just further add uh we're very fortunate to have uh joe satelny who's a uh a adm in albert

00:50:27.220 emergency management uh former fire chief in edmonton uh he's been of course on on the phone

00:50:32.500 uh as many of us have been throughout the days and nights and we've been able to bring in uh

00:50:37.300 structural firefighters from 32 municipalities all throughout alberta so it is certainly uh

00:50:43.220 grateful to all the municipalities and stepped up the plate in order to assist what is going on jasper

00:50:48.100 just so everybody's aware firefighting from a structural uh firefighting is is is different

00:50:53.380 uh than firefighting from a wild wildfire um and i think as my colleagues have previously mentioned

00:51:00.100 um when you're dealing with structural firefighters there's a lot of unknown risks you

00:51:03.700 know sometimes gas leaks sometimes toxic fumes so this is very different i just want to correct

00:51:09.540 uh what that one uh reporter indicated uh it's 30 to 50 percent again this is a very ongoing and

00:51:15.460 fluid situation there's still fires that are going within the community of jasper so we're still

00:51:21.540 assessing the situation and we're hoping for a further update from parks canada as to the extent

00:51:26.260 of the damage thank you and seeing no new faces here in the room we're going to move over to the

00:51:32.020 phones operator could you put through our first color please operator could you put through our

00:51:47.860 first color on the line please the lines are open mr charles deline hello charles deline

00:51:57.620 radio canada alberta um my question is for skivin lacroix um if you could answer in french

00:52:04.100 um basically um what happened what was like did it move too quickly can we get like an answer in

00:52:11.620 French.

00:52:14.620 Oui, je vais répéter ce que la Première ministre a déjà mentionné.

00:52:18.620 Ce qui est essentiellement arrivé, c'est que les vents extrêmes ont fait en sorte que

00:52:25.620 le feu a augmenté de façon totalement incontrôlable et progressé vers la municipalité de Jasper.

00:52:33.620 Donc, c'est essentiellement ce qui s'est passé.

00:52:35.620 Pas grand-chose qui pouvait être faite.

00:52:37.620 and also I would mention that it was all under the Parc Canada and the Municipality of Jasper

00:52:44.520 that they were able to manage the incident in the Federation of the Parc Nationals which

00:52:50.880 at this moment, the province is happy to enter in a form of recommendation

00:52:58.260 shared with the two authorities that I mentioned and under the Parc Canada and the Municipality of Jasper.

00:53:05.880 yeah so uh essentially i uh i i kind of repeated what uh the prime minister minister said um so

00:53:16.440 uh stated that uh the fire became uh out of control or was already out of control but it

00:53:22.200 was uncontrollable as the way i would depict it uh due to the the wind gusts that uh brought the

00:53:28.200 fire up to about 100 metres high at one point and covered an inordinate amount of space in a very

00:53:38.360 little amount of time, which led us to the situation that we're in. I also mentioned that Unified

00:53:44.760 Command is actually between the Municipality of Jasper and Parks Canada and that we're trying to

00:53:49.800 find a way to insert ourselves in that in that construct to to be at the table influencing and

00:53:58.520 sharing in the decisions that are being made to deal with this issue thank you

00:54:05.080 and did you have a follow-up charles yes this one's for minister ellis um were the evacuation

00:54:11.800 alerts sent to people in jasper on monday on their phone even with those without the alberta

00:54:16.520 emergency alert app and if not how was it communicated to the tourists that were there

00:54:22.360 one might get uh stephen to supplement this to be honest with you uh but yeah we of course

00:54:26.760 utilized our alberta emergency management system uh to make sure that uh alerts were were sent out

00:54:34.280 to everyone obviously there are of course the challenges of people that are you know backpacking

00:54:39.720 hiking and camping like that but we of course utilized our local police the rcp of area to

00:54:48.040 to also engage their resources in order to assist with locating and evacuating people out of the

00:54:54.600 area but i don't you can explain a bit more soon yeah very briefly thanks minister yeah i would add

00:55:00.200 that um the alberta emergency alert uh system uh so broadcast intrusive uh and and application

00:55:07.800 were used the municipality municipality of jasper also used uh uh their own tool that they have

00:55:13.800 called buoyant i believe you uh and to be perfectly honest this is a question that should probably be

00:55:19.720 addressed to parks canada and uh and mayor arland and his team but that's what that's what transpired

00:55:24.920 uh they were 200 checks done by the rcmp in town door knocking door to door to make sure everybody

00:55:31.400 was out i know uh that parks canada went out and sought out uh uh back count back country campers

00:55:39.000 and notified them that uh depending where they were in relation to the fire coming

00:55:44.200 uh they they could hitch a ride with the helicopter that found them or

00:55:48.040 they needed to hike back to their vehicles and and get out of the park so that's as much as i know

00:55:54.040 Thank you.

00:55:56.040 Thank you, Charles.

00:55:58.040 Can we get it in French?

00:56:03.040 OK, Charles, let me remind you of what I just mentioned in English.

00:56:07.040 So, we have an application, like I mentioned,

00:56:12.040 which distributes the alerts of intrusive

00:56:15.040 on all the phones of all the people

00:56:18.040 who are in, say, the geographic region.

00:56:23.040 There is also an application that allows us to distribute these alarms.

00:56:28.040 The JASPER has also a system called Voyants.

00:56:34.040 Then, the GRC has visited 100% of the residents of the JASPER,

00:56:43.040 so the day even when the alert was given,

00:56:48.040 and the day even to ensure everyone had quit the place.

00:56:51.040 has also done what they had to do to convince the campers who were in the back country

00:56:58.240 to camp or to do the pedestrian walk or the albinism. And finally, it was a question

00:57:05.840 that was maybe better addressed to Parcs Canada and the municipality of Jasper, who were the

00:57:13.520 authorities who made the alert in the first place. Thank you.

00:57:16.640 Thank you, Charles. And operator, could you put through our next caller?

00:57:20.720 This would probably be for everybody here. After the 2016 wildfire in Fort McMurray,

00:57:36.880 Alberta announced evacuees would get emergency financial relief two days after the evacuation.

00:57:42.880 Jasper has seen similar destruction to Fort McMurray. Actually, if we're talking percentage

00:57:47.760 jasper lost a greater percentage of the town so why not just authorize those payments now i mean

00:57:54.240 does anyone here really believe this evacuation will last fewer than seven days

00:58:00.240 one of the decisions that we made uh in um previous uh emergencies is that we would wait

00:58:07.920 for seven days because there's oftentimes you can return um within a shorter period of a shorter

00:58:13.600 period of time as has happened we have had evacuations already this fire season which

00:58:18.240 started early and we have been able to get people back home within seven days there is a treasury

00:58:25.120 board process that we have to to go through in order to be able to accelerate or expedite that

00:58:30.800 and so we'll be meeting as an emergency management committee each day gauging it but the the main

00:58:36.160 thing that people need right now is to have the immediate support so uh the the support of the

00:58:42.560 hotels the food the emergency evacuation that's part of the reason why we wait until seven days

00:58:48.800 because we know that we have a lot of support that we're able to give as people are figuring

00:58:51.840 out where they're going to go find out whether they're going to be able to return home find out

00:58:55.120 whether their home is going to survive uh we'll we'll gauge it we'll listen to to feedback about

00:59:00.240 how people are feeling but we know that this is going to be for many people a long-term period of

00:59:06.720 time that they will be out we'll have to obviously work with their insurance companies to ensure as

00:59:10.960 well that they're able to get the support payments through insurance so that they can be supported

00:59:15.440 that way also but we we do want to do whatever we can to be supportive and did you follow up

00:59:23.680 sure um well fort mcmurray had the advantage of high vacancies during the wildfire because the

00:59:29.120 oil sands boom had just ended and the main industry up here was able to restart pretty quickly

00:59:33.920 So Jasper, you know, does not have high vacancies and tourist infrastructure is in rough shape.

00:59:40.920 So are there any ideas about where residents who lost their homes will be staying while they await their rebuild?

00:59:48.920 Look, I mean, we're right in the middle of fighting fires still.

00:59:51.920 There's still dangers in the community.

00:59:54.920 There's still structural fires occurring.

00:59:56.920 So I think in any development of an emergency response,

01:00:03.100 you have to deal with the immediate fire

01:00:05.780 and the immediate danger, which is what everyone is doing.

01:00:09.440 We'll continue meeting as an emergency management committee

01:00:12.840 to identify the steps along the way.

01:00:15.100 Once we do move into recovery and have a better sense

01:00:19.300 of how many people are going to be displaced.

01:00:21.560 But I think it's a bit too early for us to plan that

01:00:24.980 until we know we have some uncertainty about what structures have been damaged thank you vincent

01:00:30.260 operator could you go ahead and put for our next caller please yes the next one is from david

01:00:36.020 staples please ask your question uh thanks for taking my call i'd just like to clarify a point

01:00:42.740 that was raised earlier you mentioned that alberta has the capacity to fight fires at night with

01:00:49.460 helicopters and, if I'm not mistaken, said water bombers, what is the difference when it's run by

01:00:55.240 Parks Canada, do they, for them to use that kind of equipment, what's the process where they can

01:01:01.620 use that kind of equipment, that night fighting ability, and was that requested, if it's their

01:01:10.280 responsibility to request that, was that requested earlier this week, and has that been used there?

01:01:19.460 or was it not used well i can i can tell you that um what we learned last year by having over

01:01:26.260 two million hectares burned is that minister lowen recognized that fighting um with the the

01:01:32.820 weather and the change in temperature was really going to be the most effective way for us to get

01:01:37.140 ahead of it so as you've heard we've had hundreds of fires around the province that we have been

01:01:41.940 laid on and our approach there has been to do exactly that to use night vision helicopters

01:01:47.300 where we can identify the fire send in teams at night and be able to douse them right after they

01:01:52.100 start so that they don't grow out of control so i'll turn it over to um that's that's become

01:01:56.580 our standard practice where it's uh where where we can do that and where we do have the authority

01:02:01.460 i'll turn it over to minister lowen to talk about jasper in particular

01:02:07.860 yeah so the process uh with uh parks canada is they they make requests for because they're in

01:02:15.220 control of this the situation there and they make requests and we've provided that when they make

01:02:20.260 requests for this equipment uh for instance night vision helicopters then then we provide the the

01:02:25.860 personnel the the helicopter and everything to uh to help fight that fire and that's the way it's

01:02:31.300 worked with uh within this situation all the way through we've provided uh parks canada with every

01:02:38.180 every request that they've had we've fulfilled and made sure that they had every available resource

01:02:43.540 that uh that was possible so i'm not uh christy did you have some of that um i just say we we

01:02:51.300 have used night vision enabled helicopters very effectively so far this season they allow us to

01:02:58.260 understand the perimeters of the fire and even fight the fire overnight while the activity is

01:03:02.980 low we did make night vision helicopters available to parks canada to use on the wildfire in jasper

01:03:11.220 last night unfortunately conditions meant that uh aircraft were not able to fly because of that

01:03:17.060 extreme uh weather smoke it's not possible to fly in in all conditions unfortunately and we

01:03:22.740 were unable to use night vision last night thank you and david did you have a follow-up

01:03:31.860 yeah so usually there's um when there's a massive wild star in alberta there's often

01:03:36.980 major reports to come out investigating best practices and what caused it. We already have

01:03:44.180 of course tons of theories and ideas about what caused this fire and I'm just wondering

01:03:50.340 what the post-mortem process will be for this particular fire. Will Alberta be involved or

01:03:55.860 will it be just a federal post-mortem because it's a national park fire or do you know that yet?

01:04:01.460 like how we're going to get to the bottom of uh how maybe we can avoid this kind of thing uh

01:04:08.420 in the future well i would i what we'll be proposing to minister sadja when he joins us

01:04:13.380 today and i hope that we'll be able to proceed on is a joint inquiry into finding out best practices

01:04:20.100 you you may recall we passed legislation in the spring session that gives us the authority to step

01:04:27.380 in in any municipality when we see that they might be overwhelmed or when it goes across

01:04:33.220 jurisdiction there's a reason why we did that is we didn't have the authority to do that

01:04:37.220 all over the province and we understood that federal land is federal jurisdiction we figured

01:04:43.140 that mutual aid agreements would be enough for us to be able to to provide support it may well be

01:04:49.380 that we have to talk about how we have integrated unified command right from the beginning that

01:04:54.900 we're going to see a parks agency go to unified command with the municipality it could well be

01:05:01.060 that we make the decision that we come in at that time that would be one part um and we'll

01:05:06.740 i think we do have to look at all of our parks there's a fire going on in banff right now we've

01:05:10.900 had fires in waterton um in previous years as well and so i think that in this one in particular

01:05:17.540 since it's a bit of a bit unique to have to deal with a federal agency there may be additional

01:05:22.580 learning that comes from that i don't know if you want to comment minister else

01:05:29.140 well um yeah i mean look i mean

01:05:35.780 minister session uh called a collaboration um you know i can tell you that uh albert emergency

01:05:45.780 management over wildfire um certainly recognizing canada as being a um certainly one of the most

01:05:54.980 conversations with minister uh mr lowen and him and his team and the

01:06:05.540 and doing whatever they can um i have had clear on that

01:06:13.140 that minister has recognized already about the unified command and potential structure

01:06:26.660 alberta can be more a part of the decision making process

01:06:32.580 situation but he wants to work with us because we're understanding you know some of the

01:06:38.820 the challenges that we're having from an ama perspective as well as for a wildfire perspective

01:06:46.180 which is beyond the question that you asked david um i think people need to understand

01:06:53.300 that that that uh that fire was about five kilometers out i know steven mentioned that

01:07:01.860 there was enormous kilometers in probably less than 30 minutes with a wall of fire that was about

01:07:12.260 100 meters high i think people need to picture what those wildfire folks were experience really

01:07:20.260 any fire provider will tell you that there's little to nothing you can do when you have a

01:07:25.380 wall of flames coming in in order to fight that fire kudos to the uh the folks who are the

01:07:34.660 structural firefighters that were preparing uh for that fire to be coming but quickly

01:07:47.140 thank you minister we have time for one maybe two more questions

01:07:51.140 operator could you put through our next caller please yes the next one is from jonathan grantly

01:07:56.340 your line is now open hello premier smith thank you for taking my question so your government

01:08:02.500 over the last few years has made various cuts to alberta's wildfire fighting budget do you

01:08:09.140 regret making those cuts now why why not well look i mean my first uh firefighting season was last

01:08:15.940 year and what we did in response to that was we increased the firefighting budget by 50 percent

01:08:23.060 in 2023-4 it was a hundred point four million dollars in 24-25 we increased it to 155.4 million

01:08:32.340 and that's the highest it's ever been and there's a reason for that is is that we we knew that we

01:08:38.580 needed to get some of the equipment and change some of the practices as minister lowen had mentioned

01:08:42.980 we uh declared the start of forest fire season early we had all of our personnel hired and in

01:08:48.420 place by april 15th which is uh may 15th by may 15th um and uh in addition to that because of the

01:08:57.060 amount of uh damage that we saw last year when i when i first came in we had a billion dollar

01:09:03.460 contingency um my first budget we increased that to a 1.5 billion dollar contingency

01:09:09.140 and this budget we increased to a two billion dollar contingency so there is no limit to the

01:09:14.980 amount of money that we will spend to make sure that we have the resources that we need and to

01:09:18.980 make sure that we have the money available to assist with the with the recovery so i would say

01:09:24.340 that we've looked at the lessons of the past and and we we made the uh the appropriate amount of

01:09:31.140 uh of investment in this budget here and did you have a follow-up jonathan

01:09:36.100 Yeah. So you spoke about Jasper and how the community is destroyed and damaged and what

01:09:46.100 the Alberta government is going to be there to assist. What will your government do to

01:09:50.240 assist with regaling Jasper?

01:09:52.860 Look, I mean, this is again one of the conversations we'll have to have with Minister Sajjan as

01:09:57.300 well as Minister LeBlanc when he's here today. Because I've observed, for instance, that

01:10:03.400 a similar tragedy in british columbia three years in they they haven't begun reconstruction and we

01:10:09.800 have to be able to accelerate and move faster than that this is one of the most important jewels in

01:10:15.400 our national park system not only in the province but in all of canada and so anything we can do to

01:10:20.760 accelerate some of the um the development approvals we want to be able to work collaboratively with the

01:10:26.440 federal government on that what often happens is that the the municipality and province takes the

01:10:31.480 leads on rebuilding and then we cost share with the federal government in these kinds of disasters so

01:10:36.760 we just want to make sure that there aren't any obstructions or barriers in in being able to get

01:10:41.080 the rebuilding done thank you and we have time for one last question operator could you put through

01:10:46.120 the next caller please yes the next one is from dennis cupton please ask your question

01:10:54.360 and that's a question pertaining mostly to northern alberta so i guess christie tucker

01:10:58.200 would be the best place to answer it uh you did say that the conditions are a bit better in them

01:11:04.760 in in this part of the province at this time can you kind of elaborate on that and and what

01:11:09.480 is going on uh given also the fact that local municipalities have lifted the evacuation alert

01:11:15.400 in the hamlet of janvier yes the actions of municipalities is an indication of uh the

01:11:23.480 change in conditions that we have seen in the northern many parts of the north of the province

01:11:29.800 we have seen precipitation come in that has been extremely welcome to the teams that are working

01:11:35.080 hard on those on those areas with communities that have been evacuated or have been under

01:11:41.400 threat of evacuation obviously those are still priority for alberta wildfire and no matter what

01:11:46.920 else is going on in the province and we are getting the resources in to allocate as needed

01:11:52.600 it also gives us an opportunity to move teams around move aircraft around move equipment

01:11:58.520 where we need it at any given time in the province so certainly many people in the north of the

01:12:04.760 province happy to see some rain firefighters among them but it may mean that they are relocated

01:12:10.840 somewhere else where we are seeing rising uh wildfire danger as we have seen a lot of activity

01:12:17.080 in the south as well and and one of the things to mention to people in the in the south of the

01:12:22.840 province many haven't experienced the same kind of conditions that we have seen up north and

01:12:29.240 they're getting them now things are very dry and very hot and we are seeing winds in that area of

01:12:34.920 the province and we've seen the effects that wind can have on fire but one thing to mention is that

01:12:42.520 alberta wildfire needs uh water for our skimmers and we often use to move quickly to drop water

01:12:51.560 where we need to on the wildfires we've had some reports of people in in boats and watercraft who

01:13:01.000 may not have moved out of the way quickly enough when skimmer needs with wildfire in the vicinity

01:13:08.360 if you see an air tanker a skimmer a wildfire plane coming towards quickly on the wildfire

01:13:18.520 and respond as quickly as we need to thank you and did you have a follow-up dennis

01:13:26.600 yes uh this is uh perhaps mostly for uh the premier or one of the minister can you kind of

01:13:35.480 elaborate on how the military resources will be utilized and and what personnel you request

01:13:45.160 specifically so it is going to be combat engineers who will who will practice kind of their their

01:13:49.720 training and their crafters is going to be uh infanteers and and uh personnel from from the

01:13:55.560 land forces are going to be assisting firefighters um and also where do anticipate military personnel

01:14:01.640 to be deployed yeah first first of all i i would just mention that i mean the world has become a

01:14:06.520 very dangerous place in recent months and years and we know that our men and women in uniform have

01:14:12.760 to be deployed i understand there have been some deployments of the ppcli which is who we relied

01:14:17.960 on last year and so last year they were able to provide us 300 individuals who were trained in

01:14:24.520 in forest firefighting and so i don't know if we'll be able to get the same number this year

01:14:30.200 but the kind of supports that we've requested in the letter that minister ellis wrote was the

01:14:34.760 provision of firefighting resources provision of wildfire mitigation resources in order to

01:14:40.360 reduce the risk to homes businesses critical infrastructure and communities a pre-position

01:14:45.320 pre-positioning of strategic airlift resources for the evacuation of isolated communities we

01:14:50.440 we used them last year for fort chippewa air support to be able to remove wildfire crews and

01:14:56.120 equipment uh aerial infrared scanning and collection of wildfire status information

01:15:01.560 and logistics support um i think either um stephen might be able to explain a little bit more

01:15:08.680 yeah thank you premier uh i would also add that uh as uh as premier smith mentioned

01:15:14.600 we uh we warned off our our counterparts and our colleagues on july 18th uh today at one o'clock

01:15:20.680 actually, the commander of Joint Task Force West, Brigadier General Wade Rutland, is meeting with

01:15:27.000 Alberta wildfire officials to strategize about where these troops will have the most effect

01:15:36.920 in the province. So then we can expect Joint Task Force West resources arriving

01:15:44.760 in the vicinity of where they will be deployed for reconnaissance and then troops following on

01:15:51.200 after that. So it's an open dialogue and conversation as to where the military is

01:15:57.860 best suited to be employed by Alberta Wildfire, what Alberta Wildfire sees in terms of what's

01:16:04.900 happening on the landscape for the next days or weeks. And that determination is about to be made

01:16:10.960 actually starting this afternoon thank you thank you and that's all the time we have for questions

01:16:15.920 today thank you everyone for joining us

01:16:40.960 You

Western Standard - July 26, 2024

Alberta Wildfire Update： Current Challenges and Responses

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