'Fires are still burning on our traditional territories' say Cree leaders as Trudeau visits Saguenay

Saguenay -

Cree leaders are calling on governments to do more to protect forests from fire, as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visited evacuees and firefighters in Saguenay on Wednesday.

"The fires continue to burn our traditional territories," said Lance Cooper, vice-chief of the evacuated Oujé-Bougoumou community, who is calling for more air tankers and firefighters to fight the fires that will be more frequent in the years to come.

During a whirlwind visit to Saguenay, Trudeau went to encourage the latest evacuees from this Cree community: 250 of them had taken refuge at the CEGEP de Chicoutimi, 150 at the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi (UQAC) and only a few dozen remained in an overheated CEGEP gymnasium. They were on their way home on Wednesday.

At a press conference at Bagotville air base, Trudeau indicated that international aid to fight forest fires will also be available this summer, as the fire season is just getting underway in the country.

"International aid is a sustainable situation," said Trudeau in a hangar at the base, accompanied by the Mayor of Saguenay, Julie Dufour.

During a briefing with the prime minister in the hangar, Colonel Marie-Christine Harvey reported that 1,467 foreign firefighters were deployed or about to be deployed.

"The Canadian government needs to provide additional assistance to SOPFEU, to get more air tankers or if additional infrastructure is needed, and to hire more firefighters," emphasized Cooper, in an interview with The Canadian Press.

Given the scale of the blazes across the country, firefighters from several countries, including the United States, Portugal and Spain, are lending a hand to their Quebec colleagues. The Canadian Armed Forces are also on the ground to help.

Asked about the possible expiration of this assistance during a visit to the Bagotville military base in Saguenay, Trudeau indicated that it was available for the long term.

The prime minister pointed out that there was a gap in the fire season with these countries, allowing international firefighters to come and help in Canada, and vice versa.

"We can count on friends, just as they count on us. Canadian firefighters find themselves in different parts of the world every year fighting forest fires." He added that the federal government was considering ways to better prepare for extreme weather events that are expected to happen more and more with climate change.

In particular, Trudeau suggested that firefighters in the west of the country could train their colleagues in the east, who are less accustomed to dealing with such blazes.

"We'll be better positioned for the years to come because we're constantly learning how to work better together," he concluded.

This report was first published in French by The Canadian Press on June 14, 2023.