Among the immediate casualties is the Alberta Wildland Firefighter Rappel Program, which since 1983 has been the main line of defence for rural communities against wildfires that start in remote areas. Without doubt, these cuts will directly impact the safety and livelihoods of rural communities in Alberta. “The proposed cuts and the rationale presented by the UCP government are short-sighted. “Against this backdrop of increasing wildfire risk and management concerns, the UCP government has announced cuts to its wildfire suppression program,” wrote author Mathieu Bourbonnais. “They just said budget.” A 2019 op-ed in the CBC News said, “As wildfire threat grows, UCP cuts to remote rappel team are a risky gamble,” and explained they saw the province’s plan as shortsighted.

“They told us the program had been eliminated,” said former member Adam Clyne. The rappelling program was cut in 2019 by the United Conservative government. The program once had 63 firefighters stationed around the province - including at Edson, Fox Creek, and Lac La Biche - and these are communities now threatened by one of the busiest early fire seasons in provincial history. “We could have been difference-makers,” said Jordan Erlandson, a former member of Alberta’s Rapattack team.

Government budget cuts have left the province short-handed in wildfire suppression. Meanwhile, according to the CBC, firefighters criticized cuts to Alberta’s aerial attack teams as the fires burn a former rappeller says that rappel teams could have made the difference in the ongoing firefight. “It was pretty far from us, from where we live, but we could see all the smoke coming up and it was just getting worse by the minute,” said resident Johnette Blesse. In northern Alberta, more than 80 homes were destroyed in rural areas including Fox Lake, John D’Or Prairie, and Garden River, and more than 3,700 residents in that area were evacuated. About 964,000 acres have burnt since wildfires began over a week ago. Some areas had evacuation orders lifted after scattered showers and light winds tempered the fires.

More than 50 schools were closed on Monday morning, affecting over 2023 Alberta firesġ0,000 students, said Mike Ellis, Alberta’s minister of public safety and emergency services. Nearly 30,000 people have been asked to evacuate their homes under siege of dozens of wildfires across the western Canadian province officials declared a state of emergency on Saturday with more than 110 active wildfires, according to a report today by the BBC.

Cibola burn