Moose Jaw North MLA and Minister of Corrections, Policing and Public Safety Tim McLeod has announced $20 million in provincial funding to support communities devastated by wildfires.
The provincial government has been assessing wildfire recovery efforts in northern Saskatchewan through the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency (SPSA) and a dedicated Recovery Task Team.
“The communities are leading the recovery phase, and the government, through the Recovery Task Team, is supporting right alongside. This is a $20-million commitment by the Government of Saskatchewan to assist with those recovery efforts,” McLeod said.
He added that this is new funding intended to help communities rebuild, as the SPSA reports that 299 primary residences and more than 2,000 “values” have been lost to the fires.
“This funding is intended for communities and individuals that sustained losses during the provincial emergency declaration period, which ran from May 29 to June 26, or if the evacuated community was under a local state of emergency at the time of the loss,” McLeod said.
The Recovery Task Team has been working with communities to identify preliminary needs, with debris removal and site clean-up listed as the top priorities.
The $20 million in funding is expected to be used for:
- Debris removal and environmental testing
- Creating, expanding or maintaining landfills near impacted communities
- Project management support to assist local recovery efforts
McLeod reminded residents that this funding does not replace regular insurance coverage.
“Wildfires are typically an insurable natural occurrence, and as such, we strongly encourage individuals and businesses to contact their insurance providers as soon as possible if they have not already done so,” he said.
As of Monday afternoon, there were 67 active wildfires, bringing the year-to-date total to 353. Of those fires, 17 are not contained, eight are contained, 26 are under ongoing assessment, and 16 are classified as protecting values.
The fire risk in the southern part of the province remains significantly lower. The fire weather index for the Moose Jaw area is moderate, as is much of south-central Saskatchewan. The southeast corner of the province is rated low, while the southwest is high, with a small pocket near the Alberta border listed as extreme.