Province Confident in Capability of Dealing With Flood, No Immediate Call For Military Support

No request is being made at this time to have the military help with the flood.

Jason Nixon, Alberta’s Minister of Environment and Parks, announced on Tuesday the province and the municipality are capable of dealing with the situation at this time.

If the situation gets worse, they will consider reaching out for help.

Nixon says they never received a formal request from the RMWB and provincial operations centre.

“We have had some conversations primarily around whether or not there were some ability from our armed forces to be able to help with explosives around the ice jam and that would have made the situation worse.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has indicated that they would be willing to send military personnel as soon as a request comes in from the GoA.

Public Safety Canada is also continuing to monitor the situation.

Right now, the province is working on fulfilling all the requests from the RMWB.

“We heard very cleary, the Premier and I, when we were on the ground [Monday] for the need of tiger dams, increased sandbags, as well as law enforcement and some options for how we handle people that are being evacuated,” added Nixon.

The province is also compensating evacuees who are staying in hotels and are in need of food.

Nixon believes the RMWB has done well ensuring everyone impacted has been taken care of.

“If that were to change, we would obviously have to adjust but we are confident that we’re able to take care of the evacuees well at this time.”

More information can be found on the RMWB’s website.

More from 100.5 Cruz FM