(OTTAWA) Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is scheduled to stop in Alberta on Monday before heading to Asia for a week-long trip.
Canada’s head of government is expected to meet in Edmonton with members of the Canadian Armed Forces who are helping with wildfire disaster relief efforts in Alberta. The Prime Minister’s schedule calls for this meeting to take place at 11 am Prairie time.
There were 87 active wildfires in Alberta as of Sunday afternoon, 24 of which were considered out of control. The number of evacuees rose to more than 19,300 on Sunday, up from the 16,500 evacuees in the previous day’s toll.
More than 1,500 Albertans are currently on the ground fighting the fires. The province also said 200 additional firefighters from the United States have joined the effort in the past few hours, bringing to more than 800 the number of people coming from elsewhere in Canada and south of the border to fight the flames.
After his stopover in Edmonton, Prime Minister Trudeau will travel to South Korea for his first official visit. At the end of the week, he will attend the summit of the leaders of the G7 countries in Japan.