Manitoba lifts provincewide state of emergency as wildfire conditions improve
CBC
A provincewide state of emergency is no longer in effect due to improving wildfire conditions, though risks remain for over a dozen communities that still aren't clear of wildfire threats.
Premier Wab Kinew announced the end to the Manitoba emergency order during a Monday news conference. It was originally issued May 28 amid a spate of wildfires that forced thousands to evacuate rural and northern communities.
Kinew credited the end of the state of emergency to ongoing wildfire suppression efforts, favourable recent weather conditions and the "good nature and hard work" of Manitobans, particularly in the north and east, where people have been able to start returning home.
"This is still a very serious situation," Kinew said at the Manitoba Legislature.
"We're going to have to keep working together as thousands of our fellow Manitobans make their way home. We can do this with normal government powers, and it's important that we have a light touch when it's something as serious as declaring a state of emergency."
As of Sunday, 25 fires — six of them considered out of control — were still burning across the province, according to the latest provincial fire situation report.
There have been 131 wildfires so far this spring, the report notes. That's compared to the 20-year average of 128 by this time of year, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre Inc.
A total of 909,109 hectares of Manitoba land have burned thus far this year.
Evacuees from some rural and remote regions have begun to return to their communities as the situation has improved around some of the fires.
About 22,000 people were forced to evacuate their communities this spring. As of Monday, about 9,000 have been able to head home, said Christine Stevens, assistant deputy minister of the Manitoba Emergency Management Organization.
All evacuees staying in Winnipeg had been moved into hotels as of early last week, after the initial crush of evacuees created a shortage of spaces.
Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham told CBC News late last week that two of four arenas and soccer complexes that have been devoted to helping and housing evacuees are in the process of being decommissioned as shelters, since they're no longer needed.
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