(Ottawa) The Canadian army will be deployed in three Atlantic provinces – Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador – to help clean up the debris caused by by the passage of post-tropical storm Fiona.
Posted at 7:04 p.m.
During a press briefing on Sunday afternoon in Ottawa, Federal Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair confirmed that Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador have in turn asked for the help of the Canadian army, as Nova Scotia had done the day before.
About 100 members of the Canadian Armed Forces are available in each of these three provinces, according to the federal government, which warns that this number could however vary rapidly due to changing needs.
The Armed Forces will be deployed to help clear roads, clean up debris left behind by flooding and allow linemen to do their jobs, said Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc.
Passing through the Îles-de-la-Madeleine earlier on Sunday, Quebec Deputy Premier Geneviève Guilbault had indicated that the Quebec government would not call on the army for help, since “our operational capacity has not been exceeded at all”.
Despite everything, the federal Minister of National Defence, Anita Anand, recalled that the Canadian Rangers “remain our eyes and our ears on the ground” in the Islands and that the federal government is ready to send aid to Quebec if the provincial government were to need it.
The federal government also officially launched its donation matching program with the Canadian Red Cross to help those affected by the storm.
On Saturday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that the federal government would match all donations made to the Red Cross to help disaster relief for 30 days.