Business, Tourism, Culture and Rural Development
June 2, 2016

The following statement was given today in the House of Assembly by the Honourable Christopher Mitchelmore, Minister of Business, Toursim, Culture and Rural Development and Minister Responsible for the Forestry and Agrifoods Agency:

Newfoundland and Labrador Continues to Provide Support to Alberta

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the Newfoundlanders and Labradorians working to combat the forest fires in Alberta.

Our government is proud to respond to the needs of residents in Fort McMurray through the deployment of 11 forest firefighters from the Forestry and Agrifoods Agency.

Also deployed are two government employees who are working as members of Incident Management Teams in Red Lake, Ontario, and Horse River, Alberta.

Mr. Speaker, the forest firefighters arrived in Alberta this past weekend and were assigned to an area approximately 40 kilometres outside Fort McMurray. This is a very high priority duty as they help make Fort McMurray safe for residents to return.

These deployments are made under the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre, Mutual Aid Resource Sharing Agreement, which enables provinces to share firefighting resources.

Four Provincial Government employees deployed to Alberta and Winnipeg earlier this month recently returned home. Thirty-one members of the local RCMP who spent a few weeks in Fort McMurray to help rebuilding efforts in the community have also returned.

Mr. Speaker, we will continue to help our friends and family in Fort McMurray in any way we can.

Thank you.

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2016 06 02                              1:55 p.m.