National

Canada, United States expand agreement to help each other fight wildfires

Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 22 Jun, 2023 02:09 PM

Canada and the United States are expanding an agreement to share people and equipment to fight wildfires.

Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson and U.S. Ambassador David Cohen are signing the memorandum of understanding in Ottawa today.

This year's wildfire season is amongst the worst we've ever seen. Today, @USAmbCanada and I signed an arrangement that strengthens our countries’ cooperation to combat wildland fires and protect our communities. pic.twitter.com/DuKe9QIWHO
— Jonathan Wilkinson 🇨🇦 (@JonathanWNV) June 22, 2023

The two countries have repeatedly relied on each other to help when the wildfire situation grows beyond what they can handle on their own.

The new agreement replaces a number of separate deals between the two countries in a bid to make the sharing of firefighters, incident managers and equipment more efficient.

It comes as Canada continues to battle its worst wildfire season in history, with more than 61,000 square kilometres of land burned so far this year, which is about the same size as Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island combined.

The Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre says nearly 2,000 international firefighting personnel are in Canada right now, including several hundred from the U.S.

Prev Next

MORE National ARTICLES

Police incident in North Van shuts down Highway 1 yesterday, to deal with man's erratic behaviour

North Vancouver R-C-M-P say they were alerted to a man "causing public alarm" Monday morning on the Mosquito Creek trail under an overpass, and officers had to confront his "aggressive" and threatening behaviour.

Police incident in North Van shuts down Highway 1 yesterday, to deal with man's erratic behaviour

B.C. creates anti-racism data committee, releases research priorities

The British Columbia government has released 12 priorities for anti-racism research in its first update since the Anti-Racism Data Act came into effect last June. The province says the focus will be in areas such as racial diversity within the public service, interactions with the justice system and how health care and education differs for various demographic groups.

B.C. creates anti-racism data committee, releases research priorities

New Democrat MP says she is target of foreign interference by China

Kwan said the Canadian Security Intelligence Service spent an hour with her on Friday laying out the intelligence it possesses that she has been targeted by China since before the 2019 federal election over her advocacy for human rights in Hong Kong and for the Uyghur Muslim minority in China.

New Democrat MP says she is target of foreign interference by China

15 year old charged for Surrey robberies

R-C-M-P in Surrey have charged a 15-year-old with a handful of street robberies. Police say they responded to three separate robbery reports on April 24th where bear spray was used to help the suspect steal cellphones and headphones.

15 year old charged for Surrey robberies

B.C. police say remains of Madison Scott, last seen in 2011, have been found

Police have said she was 20 years old when she was last seen early in the morning of May 28, 2011. She had been at a party celebrating a friend's birthday at Hogsback Lake outside Vanderhoof, in central B.C.

B.C. police say remains of Madison Scott, last seen in 2011, have been found

Province's minimum wage going up on June 1

B-C's minimum wage will jump by one-dollar-and-10-cents per hour before the end of this week. The boost to the general minimum wage will increase it to 16-dollars-and-75-cents per hour on June 1st -- up from the current rate of 15-dollars-and-65-cents.