WESTERN PRODUCER — The agriculture community in areas hit by wildfires in Alberta are increasingly agitating to be able to access their livestock and protect their ranches as the threat of drier temperatures and elevated risk of fires loom on the horizon.
Premier Danielle Smith responded to criticisms of the slow response to the wildfires and producers being kept away from their animals during calving and not being permitted access to their evacuation-impacted ranches.
She said during a UCP campaign announcement on May 11 that the size of the fires this year is well beyond the five-year average up until May, increasing from 1,300 acres to more than one million acres.
“So, the ability to be able to scale up 1,000-fold, almost in the space of 10 days, I think is pretty extraordinary,” she said, adding military and firefighters from other jurisdictions have been called in to help battle the wildfires.
Regarding access to producers’ land and animals, Smith said the emergency management cabinet committee has given direction to the emergency operations centre “that people need to be able to return if they have animals to take care of. And so, we want to make sure people know what the risk is so they can mitigate risk, but people need to be able to manage their animals.”
Alberta Emergency Management Agency officials were asked about details of how producers can access their land and animals during the May 11 situation update.
AEMA executive director Colin Blair did not provide specifics regarding that process, other than to say producers should “get in contact with their local authority.
“It’s important for (producers) to provide them with that situational awareness of where they are at, what are the things they are looking at and the factors which are concerning them.”
Despite having officials from Alberta Education and Energy at the daily briefing, no one from Alberta Agriculture was made available.
The Western Producer has request comment from Alberta Agriculture multiple times since May 5 regarding the situation faced by producers due to the wildfires and the resources available to them.
No one has been made available from that ministry.
Smith said during her campaign media availability that there is an “enormous” number of livestock in the regions impacted by wildfires and that reporters should contact the agriculture ministry for details.
“It’s literally hundreds of thousands of animals that are potentially impacted because the hectarage is so huge,” she said.
A request for comment was not provided by Alberta Agriculture regarding those details.
Contact alex.mccuaig@producer.com
