Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced the government of Canada will match all donations to the Red Cross to assist people displaced by the wildfires in Fort McMurray, Alberta.
The House of Commons played host to a series of extraordinary statements by political leaders about the devastating fire, which is in its third day and has forced the evacuation of nearly 90,000 people in northern Alberta.
Here is a link to the Red Cross emergency donation page for Alberta.
Trudeau said the scale of the fire’s destruction has not yet been fully assessed but called it “far-reaching and utterly devastating.”
He told a packed Commons that to see the pictures out of Fort McMurray right now could have been taken in a war-torn corner of the world instead of our own backyard.
Trudeau says it’s a reminder of how Canadians will and must stand together with our friends and neighbours in this difficult time.
The view from Fort McMurray on Wednesday night. Photo courtesy Facebook, Gheorghe Margarit.
A number of federal departments have been pressed into service, including National Defence, Health Canada, Indigenous and Northern Affairs, Natural Resources Canada and the RCMP.
Trudeau said four Griffon helicopters and one Hercules aircraft have been deployed by the Royal Canadian Air Force, with further air support on standby.
Disaster assistance funds will also be coming, in addition to the government’s matching Red Cross donations.
Rona Ambrose, the interim leader of the Conservative party, says the citizens of Fort McMurray come from across Canada and have built a thriving resource community that now needs the support of the whole country.
She paid tribute to all the Atlantic Canadians who have made lives in Fort Mac, “which gives us hope and faith that the city of Fort McMurray will rise again.”
Ambrose says people around the world are watching the images and that Fort McMurray’s residents have faced “literally hell on the Earth in the last couple of days.”
NDP Leader Tom Mulcair called the stoic response of Fort McMurray citizens reassuring, praised the “strength of character” of Albertans and called it “profoundly Canadian” to band together in a disaster.
He noted Bombardier water bombers from Quebec are on their way to the fire.
(The Canadian Press)