At Canadian wildfires press conference, Ford bashes Trump for lack of US assistance, ‘short memory’

[0:00] Well, first of all, good morning, everyone, and it's great to be here firsthand to talk to the incident room and the front line, hardworking, be it the firefighters, the local police, our great OPP, and I just, before I get started, I just want to mention, as I talk to the OPP, there's 40 rescues, if you want to call it that, for 300 people. [0:31] So 40 missions to rescue 300 people, and these are individual campers and so on and so forth. These aren't communities, so again, I want to thank the OPP for doing an incredible job. They're absolute champions. I want to thank the local Thunder Bay police as well, firefighters, and obviously the paramedics, they're always there as well. [0:54] And I'm here with Minister Haidu. Minister, thank you for joining us. And Minister Holland as well, Minister Dunlop, Minister Harris, Mayor Boschkov. Where are you? There you go. [1:10] There you go. My favourite mayor and all the other mayors, I'm probably going to get in trouble saying my favourite mayor. I know, I'll see the mayor's right behind me. [1:18] But this is collaboration at its best. I always say collaboration, cooperation, and communication, we're all working together. [1:28] You know, I'll just run through a few numbers, and sorry, there's so many numbers here, I'm just going to read them off. [1:35] The total number of active wildland fires in Ontario is now 191, which is seven more than yesterday. [1:42] 73 of those are not under control. 91 are being observed. 12 are being held. And 15 are under control. [1:53] And right now, there are 155 fire crews and approximately 80 water bombers and helicopters. [2:00] I was over at the airport thanking some of the large helicopter operators right across the north, with about 40 more aircraft ready to deploy where needed. [2:12] I also want to thank our Indigenous First Nations police. They're incredible. They're working hand-in-hand with OPP and Thunder Bay. [2:21] Our focus continues to be sending resources to the areas where fire suspension, suppression, I should say, is most likely to be successful. [2:31] And where they can make it the biggest impact, keeping people and communities safe. [2:38] So the incident room told me to send a message to the people out there. [2:43] Do not, I repeat, do not go to your campsites. Do not go back to your homes. If they're saying not to go back, don't go back. [2:53] We will find you a place, a hotel room. We'll get you food. We'll make sure you're well taken care of. [2:59] But what, what, as they explained, when the water bombers go over and they see any citizens that aren't theirs, they won't drop the water. [3:09] So it's critical that you move out of these areas. [3:14] As of this morning, 10 communities have been evacuated to municipalities across the province, and three are still preparing or under warning or potentially evacuation. [3:26] To support evacuation efforts, we have opened provincially-led reception centers. [3:32] For example, right here in Thunder Bay. [3:36] What I'm understanding, the Dash 8s will go in to communities, load up 35 or so, bring it to Thunder Bay, and then from there they get onto the Large Plains to go to the Toronto, Niagara Falls, or other cities. [3:52] So these centers provide essential supports for evacuees from unincorporated areas, including sleeping accommodations, as I mentioned, meals, drinking water, pet accommodations, hygiene kits, and access to medical services as well. [4:09] We're also working across government and with our federal partners and the Canadian Armed Forces to establish transportation and accommodation and food and registration services. [4:22] Ontario Corps, that Minister Dunlop is there. She's a minister doing an incredible job. [4:28] By the way, there's 32,000 volunteers on the Ontario Corps right now. [4:34] So I just want to thank the Corps for helping out. [4:39] It's also ready to deploy, and usually the Corps, and you can maybe jump in here, Jill, the Ontario Corps comes in after for the cleanup and the support, and that's what they're focused on, to support evacuees and assist in recovery of impacted communities once the fires are put out. [4:58] And I'll be visiting the evacuation reception center later today as well. [5:04] I just saw one at the airport and meeting with volunteers, emergency personnel over in Thunder Bay. [5:11] There's one area that I'm going to have to address again. [5:15] I've said it for three times. [5:18] You know, it's not time to politicize these emergencies, unfortunately. [5:25] Some of the folks in Queen's Park are putting out false information. [5:28] I will not spare a penny. [5:30] Not a penny. [5:31] It's never been cut. [5:34] It's always been maintained. [5:36] We've spent $1.5 billion since I've been in office. [5:39] We're spending $650 million on helicopters and with water bombers. [5:46] And how it works, folks, I'm going to make it real slow for the opposition, even though they know. [5:52] There's base funding, right? [5:55] And then anything over on top of that, there is no limit. [5:59] Last year, we spent $271 million. [6:01] There is no limit to spending. [6:05] And if it's $500 million this year, so be it. [6:09] I've made clear direction to our ministers. [6:12] I don't care what this costs. [6:14] Number one, our priority is to protect the people. [6:17] So it's absolutely disgusting, in my opinion, that they want to politicize and play games when people's lives are on the line. [6:27] So I just want to be clear, again, there is no limit to making sure that we support and save people. [6:35] That's how the system works. [6:37] That's how the system works federally. [6:39] That's how the system works provincially for decades. [6:42] So we're going to continue moving forward. [6:44] Now, I'll pass it over to both of my ministers, if they want to say a few words. [6:49] I'll start with Mike Harris. [6:51] Thank you. [6:51] Thank you, Premier. [6:53] I had the opportunity to visit some fire sites yesterday and also see some of our fire rangers on the ground doing incredible work here up in the northwest. [7:02] I was able to get in last night. [7:04] I think, hold on, we'll let the plane go by so you can still hear me. [7:09] But I'm able to get in last night and talk to some folks here on the ground locally and understand a lot of the challenges that are being faced. [7:16] Our team is very well resourced. [7:19] Since the beginning of this year, we've been obviously prepping for another season of wildfires here in the province. [7:25] But this year has been unprecedented. [7:27] We've seen fire activity like never before. [7:30] But our folks on the ground and in the air and everybody that's supporting have been doing an incredible job. [7:35] So I know we'll have an opportunity to answer some of your questions here very shortly. [7:40] But I'll pass it over to Minister Dunlop here for a minute and then we'll go ahead with some questions. [7:45] Sure. Thank you. [7:45] With all our municipal partners here, I'd like to thank the municipalities across Ontario who are hosting evacuees in their communities. [7:52] I know we have a lot of evacuees here. [7:54] And thank you so much, Mayor, for everything that Thunder Bay does to step up every wildfire and flooding season. [8:00] We're working very hard with the evacuees here in this area and actually on our flight out today. [8:05] I brought 3,095 masks from Global Medic, one of our Ontario Corps partners, to deliver to the reception centre here, which we'll be visiting today. [8:16] And I want to thank all those partners who've stepped up. [8:18] We have Global Medic who was here delivering fire skids yesterday. [8:22] Ontario 211 is now an information line so people can call for most up-to-date information about where they should be going in their communities. [8:29] And Feed Ontario is also supplying emergency food for communities across the province as well. [8:35] The Premier mentioned we have 32,000 Ontario Corps partners who have signed up, volunteers. [8:40] So we have reached out to folks in the Thunder Bay region and asked them to be prepared to be deployed, to come help at the evacuation centre as well, [8:51] helping with things like registration, delivering wellness kits and helping in the community. [8:55] So I want to thank all of our network of Ontario Corps partners and my team on the ground here, who's with Emergency Management Ontario, for all the hard work they've been doing, [9:05] not only here receiving evacuees, but in the communities as well, supporting that. [9:09] So I'll pass it over to Minister Haidu. [9:13] Thank you. [9:15] Well, thank you very much, Premier and team, for coming to Thunder Bay to see the region, to see the hardworking officials, [9:21] many of them Ontario professionals, and to, I think, reiterate a really important message, which is that it is all hands on deck right now. [9:30] Canada's working very efficiently with Ontario and has been since the beginning of the fire season. [9:36] Our emergency preparedness minister has spoken a lot of praise about Minister Dunlop and the relationship that she has with the Ontario government [9:44] in terms of really planning out resources and what has to happen next. [9:48] A lot of people, rightly so, are afraid. [9:52] They're scared about their lives, their pets, their property, the future, the ability to breathe. [9:59] But what doesn't help with the fear is when people work at opposite ends. [10:03] And so the Prime Minister wants to be very clear that we'll be there to support Ontario. [10:09] We'll be there to work hand-in-glove with Ontario to make sure that we protect people and we protect our region. [10:16] And so I just want to thank the Premier for coming here today to listen to the voices of the people on the ground, [10:21] to also visit later with some evacuees. [10:24] As the Member of Parliament for Thunder Bay, Superior North, if I could speak with my other hat on, [10:29] I just want to express gratitude for that partnership. [10:32] We've worked really hand-in-glove to make sure that many First Nations communities in my riding, [10:36] which is deeply affected in the Armstrong area, have what they need to evacuate. [10:41] This is a relationship that happens at the government operation centres [10:45] with Emergency Preparedness Ontario and the Government of Canada. [10:49] And the focus is really, as I said before, it's to get people to safety, [10:53] it's to protect property to the degree that is possible, [10:57] and it's to put these fires out as quickly as we can with, hopefully, the help of Mother Nature. [11:02] So thank you again for coming, and I really appreciate a few moments to say those things. [11:06] Well, Minister Holm, then we'll have the Great Mayor say a few words. [11:11] I don't know what more I can say than what's already been said, [11:13] but I guess I want to start out with thanking absolutely everybody [11:18] that has been involved in fighting these fires [11:22] and making sure that our people, our communities, and our properties are being kept safe. [11:28] The fire team, as the Premier mentioned, we just came from a meeting with them, [11:31] and we're seeing an unprecedented fire season here. [11:34] This one in particular, we've got a lot of these big fires that we haven't seen before [11:40] are in much closer proximity to populated areas, [11:43] which adds the challenge and the need to protect those services. [11:48] Right from the get-go, I am very proud of the cooperation that has been achieved [11:52] between the federal government, the provincial government, and our community partners, [11:56] some of whom are standing behind us. [11:58] I think it really demonstrates that in situations like this, [12:02] all three levels of government come together to protect our collective ridings [12:07] and our collective citizens. [12:08] This last week has been very challenging for all of us, [12:12] and my heart goes out to anybody that has been directly impacted [12:16] in losing their homes, their camps, their businesses. [12:18] Being in the fire service myself, before I know how devastating this can be for so many people, [12:26] this last week has been spent making sure that I'm getting the coordination that we need [12:31] and the cooperation between all levels of government and with our provincial services. [12:37] So again, just a huge appreciation to the fire crews on the ground, [12:41] the emergency responders, the OPP, the Indigenous Policing Services, [12:47] and everybody that has been playing a role, coming together to ensure that we're doing everything we can [12:52] to protect the people here in Thunder Bay and in northwestern Ontario. [12:59] As I said to the Premier, Thunder Bay-Attaquokka, [13:01] the western part of our riding is burning right now, [13:05] and that's not lost on us. [13:07] So thank you. [13:11] Thank you very much, Premier, Ministers. [13:14] Ministers, federal, provincial, and the civic representatives here. [13:21] The people of Thunder Bay and our civic staff take this responsibility [13:27] in being the host community very seriously. [13:31] And as welcoming as we can be, I have to commend our civic team [13:37] for their organizational skills and their dedication. [13:41] They've been working day and night to ensure we're cooperating with the other orders of government [13:47] to make sure that the people who are landing here feel welcome and safe [13:52] and are well-fed and have a decent place to sleep. [13:57] And those fundamentals are something that many people just take for granted [14:02] until you realize you may not have a place like that to go back to. [14:07] So it really emphasizes the role of us as a host community to ensure that we will do everything we can [14:15] for those people who are landing here. [14:18] And I, again, I have to just reemphasize, Premier, the support of your government [14:25] and your ministers and the federal teams who have been nothing but excelsior in terms of their dedication. [14:33] And I really, again, want to thank our civic team for working day and night [14:38] to make sure that people are welcome, safe, and taken care of. [14:43] So just pray for rain. [14:45] Thank you. [14:46] Thanks, everyone. [14:49] Questions? [14:52] Okay. [14:53] Okay. [14:56] Sure. [14:56] One man said to me yesterday, nobody paid attention until the smoke got to Toronto. [15:05] What do you say to the people here who have been telling many of us [15:10] that they feel forgotten by their government? [15:12] Well, by no means was that the case. [15:15] The Ministry of Natural Resources has been on it right from day one. [15:17] And we're going to continue focusing on everything we can and put every single resource we can. [15:24] I understand. [15:26] You know, it's a terrible scenario. [15:28] Right now, there's 655,000 hectares that are burning across our province. [15:34] But we're doing absolutely every resource we can possibly throw at this, [15:40] including bringing people in from Alberta, firefighters and water bombers from the Yukon [15:47] and any other jurisdiction that's willing to help. [15:50] But it's a massive issue. [15:52] My heart breaks for the people who have lost their homes or their camps and their businesses. [15:57] And between ourselves, the federal government, the insurance companies, [16:02] we're going to get back on our feet. [16:04] So, by no means have we even stalled for a minute on this. [16:08] First Nations, what's your response to that? [16:18] And are you aware of what? [16:22] Well, I don't know of that scenario. [16:24] I'm not too sure if you do, Mike. [16:25] Yeah, do you want to talk about that one? [16:28] So, we have values protection teams in the areas that set up pumps, sprinkler systems, [16:33] look to protect critical infrastructure. [16:35] As you can imagine, we're spread pretty thin across the province right now, [16:39] not just here in the northwest, but also in the northeast. [16:42] We've got, I think, around 40 to 60 fires, depending on the day, [16:46] that are also burning in the northeast right now. [16:48] So, we've been working with multiple First Nations communities, [16:52] the federal government, and also our folks on the ground, [16:56] our fire crews that go in and actually support those efforts. [17:00] We're also looking at some other options to be able to bolster that [17:03] as we move forward over the next little while because we just have so much on fire right now. [17:07] So, they are getting the support that they need. [17:09] If they're requesting more, we're certainly happy to help where we can, [17:13] and we want to make sure that we keep those lines of communication open as we move forward. [17:16] Thank you. [17:18] Yes. [17:35] Well, on, yeah, I was going to say, go ahead. [17:42] Sorry, I'm going to answer this because, in fact, if evacuees are from First Nations, [17:46] then the emergency supports and the payment and the repayment is actually handled by the federal government. [17:52] And I was the Minister of Indigenous Services Canada for three and a half years, [17:56] so I have seen this. [17:57] And it's much like the Premier describes, there are budgets, they're available. [18:01] We actually can provide cash advances to communities as well [18:04] if they are struggling with the upfront costs of whatever they're procuring. [18:09] But we also pay on receipt of the expenses. [18:13] And so, it really is dependent on each community. [18:16] If the First Nation is struggling for cash, [18:18] they should speak to their regional advisor, [18:21] or they can call their Member of Parliament, that would be me, [18:24] and we can make sure that they get the financial resources they need right away. [18:28] But what I want to say to First Nations who are hosting evacuees across the province [18:33] is that we will be there for you, and your expenses will be covered. [18:37] And the Department will work with each First Nation on those expenses. [18:41] I'd also say just make sure to elected First Nations leaders to keep your receipts, [18:46] to keep your documentation to the degree that it's possible [18:50] so that when all of that reconciliation of what's been spent and what's owed happens, [18:55] it's just a lot more efficient for the First Nation. [18:57] But we understand these are extraordinary times, [19:00] and people are often struggling just to have a place to sleep. [19:03] So there's a lot of flexibility from the Department [19:05] to support communities as they go through these evacuations. [19:09] No, Governor Healy from Massachusetts called me, offered any assistance. [19:17] I said, yes, we'll take whatever you can get. [19:20] She couldn't provide the water bombers, but even fire personnel. [19:24] So we're waiting to hear back. [19:26] And I talked to Governor Walz, and they have their hands full. [19:32] The fire, I think it's the second largest, if not the largest now, [19:36] jumped from Minnesota over to Ontario. [19:39] But isn't it, I find it a shame, the administration in the U.S. [19:45] and Congress people writing these letters and blaming us and so on and so forth. [19:50] They have a very short, short memory. [19:52] We had the water bombers, everyone ready, going over to California. [19:56] It was last year. [19:58] We sent down hydro linemen down to the Carolinas and Georgia to help out. [20:04] That's what neighbours do, right? [20:06] You don't get on and start threatening and criticising because guess what? [20:10] One day, it's going to be your turn. [20:13] And we're going to be down there without hesitation to support our neighbours, which we should be. [20:18] But all the rhetoric going on there, and it's not from all Americans. [20:23] I'll tell you, Americans love Canadians. [20:25] And Canadians love Americans. [20:27] But to make the comments they did through the administration, unacceptable, absolutely unacceptable. [20:33] We're trying to get through this. [20:35] And maybe, I got an idea. [20:37] I got an idea for President Trump. [20:39] Why don't you get rid of the softwood lumber tariffs? [20:42] Because 33% of the lumber that you use in your building, guess what? [20:49] It comes from Canada. [20:50] You want us to clear the forest? [20:52] Well, open up the gates. [20:54] Let's start shipping softwood lumber down there. [20:57] And that would resolve a lot of the issues that we face right now. [21:01] I'll leave it with the minister. [21:12] Yeah, it's a great question. [21:13] The short answer is there's much more favourable weather coming over through the weekend and into next week. [21:22] Got a little bit of rain up here yesterday, which was good. [21:25] What we really need to see is some of those sustained rains, but without the lightning strikes. [21:29] Because the overwhelming majority of fires that we're seeing now were actually caused by a storm that came through about a week ago. [21:36] Sunday, Monday, Tuesday last week. [21:39] So, you know, the weather can change, as we know. [21:43] So I don't want to give a definitive yes, but things are trending in a very positive direction. [21:48] Even over the last 24 hours, we've seen fire activity start to slow a little bit. [21:53] The fires haven't been growing quite as fast as they have been over the last few days with that little bit of rain that we got. [21:59] What it does allow now is for hopefully the smoke to subside a bit. [22:05] Obviously, we see it, you know, around us today. [22:07] You're seeing it across the province. [22:09] But when you're actually up at the fires and you're trying to either fight them on the ground with our incredible fire rangers and the work that they're doing or the aerial suppression efforts, [22:19] sometimes the smoke is so thick that we actually can't get in to drop water on the fires. [22:24] So it's just not safe for anybody to be in and around them that close. [22:27] So as the smoke subsides, you get a little bit of rain, the weather starts to cool a little bit. [22:32] And then we've got a better opportunity to get in and fight those fires. [22:36] So, sure, if you've got a follow-up on that as well, we can take that as well. [22:54] Sure. [22:54] Minister Dunlop leads a lot of our evacuation efforts. [22:57] So I'm sure she'd be happy to provide you and Minister Haidu. [23:00] So my ministry was speaking with the First Nation last night in coordinating efforts. [23:05] And so we actually reached out to the federal government for a request for assistance on Wednesday of this week. [23:11] What that allows us to do is to move things along quicker. [23:14] So rather than having to wait the 48-hour period, we have the ministries on standby with the Canadian Enforces to be able to deploy Hercules. [23:22] So we're working with the community right now. [23:24] I was just at the airport with some of my field officers who were anticipating the flight actually might go out today. [23:31] It would be landing in Hamilton. [23:32] So we're working really closely. [23:34] It was actually quite late with the community last night. [23:36] And, you know, those coordination calls every day are so important. [23:39] We have individual calls with each of the different communities. [23:43] Not only once a day. [23:44] This week there's been some calls. [23:45] After midnight there's been a lot of activity on the ground supporting what's happening with the different communities. [23:51] Minister, do you want to add to that? [23:54] It's an excellent example of the collaboration that's happening between Ontario and the federal government. [24:00] Obviously we have to work with the Ontario government because there's so many moving parts. [24:05] So many people will ask for, you know, to send in the military, send in the CAF. [24:09] Well, we can't just send in assets if we're going to be interfering with other assets if we don't understand what's actually happening on the ground. [24:16] And so this collaboration between the ministers and between their departments allows for a safer staging of the evacuations and of obviously any other assets that they need. [24:27] I, as well, have been in touch with Chief at Lucan over the last number of days and working very efficiently with the federal government, with the provincial government. [24:39] And yes, the plan is that their most vulnerable are getting evacuated today and then there's ongoing assessments. [24:44] Premier Ford, you mentioned that no expense will be spared to, you know, fight the fires, help the people. [24:51] But I want to ask you about what's being done sort of in the off-season because we've spoken with some people who are concerned that there's attrition with firefighters. [24:57] There aren't enough firefighters that are trained or have the experience. [25:01] So what's being done in the off-season and should firefighters be paid more to attract them to be able to fight these fires which seem to be... [25:10] I'm glad you asked that question and I appreciate that because we are paying them more. [25:14] We bumped up all their salaries last year. [25:17] But I'll pass it over to the minister and he'll elaborate a little more. [25:22] Yeah, this is a prime example of that misinformation that's being sort of passed around. [25:26] So I can run through a bit of a short list for you if you like. [25:32] We've increased compensation for our pilots. [25:34] We've hired more pilots. [25:36] We've increased compensation for our aircraft maintenance staff. [25:39] We've hired more aircraft maintenance staff. [25:41] We've brought our crew leads who are the sort of the folks that run the sort of three, four, five person crews that are on the ground. [25:50] We've now made them full-time employees and have actually put a retention bonus in place for them to keep them. [25:55] We brought on, I think, roughly about 100 new fire rangers over the course of last year. [26:02] So not only... [26:03] Yeah, exactly. [26:05] And not only that, but we've also got our procurement out now for new water bombers. [26:11] We're going to be going out to market very shortly for new helicopters, new medium-duty helicopters. [26:16] That will be announced very shortly. [26:18] So it's pretty unfair, honestly, to say that the province isn't doing what it needs to do to be prepared in the off-season. [26:26] Not only are we making those investments, but we're refurbishing hose lines. [26:30] We're refurbishing pumps. [26:31] We're making sure that all of the equipment is in place at our distribution center. [26:35] Thunder Bay here is a huge jump-off point for a lot of that work that then goes out to Sioux Lookout, Dryden, Red Lake, Kenora. [26:42] So there's a lot being done in the off-season. [26:46] We're always looking for more great people to come and join our team. [26:50] And quite honestly, when that kind of information is spread across community, whether it be mainstream media like folks that we have here today or social media, [26:59] it makes it very challenging for the real facts to get out there. [27:04] So I appreciate you asking that question. [27:05] I think it's very important, and I hope that you will all take that back today for your articles and everything that you're putting out, [27:12] because we need to make sure that we don't cause hysteria, that we don't cause panic, [27:17] and that people are getting pertinent information and the right information. [27:21] So thank you very much for asking that. [27:22] I think it's very important. [27:26] Sorry, one second. [27:27] This gentleman's been trying to ask a question for about five years. [27:30] So, yes, yeah, so the challenge in Collins is that fire actually started very, very close to the community. [28:06] And given the certain weather circumstances that were in place at the time, [28:09] it was actually moving at a rate of around sort of four to eight kilometers an hour towards the community. [28:15] It started only about 15 kilometers away. [28:17] So you can imagine how quickly that actually got on top of everyone. [28:22] So we, of course, had assets deployed in the area. [28:25] We did our best, obviously, to come in and survey what was going on. [28:29] But there was so much smoke, it made it almost impossible for our teams to come in and really assess how close the fire was. [28:36] So the community made the determination that they were going to go ahead and self-evacuate, [28:41] which, of course, we, you know, if you've got a fire coming down on you, we highly recommend that you do that. [28:46] And then we've been working with them since they got here to Thunder Bay. [28:50] I actually heard relatively recently as well, Minister Haidu, that they've now also been brought in sort of reclassified a little bit to be, [28:59] and I know it's a challenging conversation, but they are getting support now from the federal government as well. [29:05] So kudos to the feds for stepping up and doing that. [29:08] And it's just, it's been a challenging situation across the Northwest and across Ontario over the last week. [29:13] So we'll look back, as we do, on all of the evacuations and our fire efforts and see if there's things that we can continue to do better. [29:22] But our number one goal right now is to protect people and property. [29:25] And, you know, we're very thankful that there were no lives lost in that situation. [29:30] I'm sorry, I'm not following. [29:39] Observed in May? [29:43] That's, I don't think that's possible. [29:46] But I'm sorry, that's the first I've heard of it. [29:48] But as far as I know, that fire started the day of. [29:52] So I'm sorry, I'm, yeah. [29:57] So where did you hear that from? [29:59] I'm curious because it's, yeah, that's not something that we've heard. [30:04] But I can certainly look into it. [30:06] But we, wildfire season really doesn't start even until much later. [30:11] And it would be very odd to have only one or two fires burning in a certain community at the time. [30:15] But, I mean, we can certainly look into it. [30:17] But that's the first I've heard of it. [30:18] So appreciate it. [30:19] Thank you. [30:23] Yes, sure. [30:35] So kind of a long answer and a short answer, I guess you could say. [30:39] Short answer is water bombers we're hoping to see online in the next few years. [30:44] They obviously take a while to build. [30:46] They're pretty substantial planes. [30:49] Helicopters we're hoping to have online hopefully late 27, 28. [30:53] That procurement's going to go out very shortly. [30:56] So as far as those new aircraft, we will see them online within the next couple of years. [31:00] However, we are constantly working with partners across Canada. [31:06] We've got a coordinating body that helps move equipment back and forth. [31:11] It's called CFSI, a wonderful acronym. [31:13] I've kind of made the joke government loves its acronyms. [31:16] So they are the coordinating body that moves equipment, people, aircraft back and forth from different provinces across Canada. [31:24] So the premier was talking earlier about how we've got some support from Alberta coming in as well as the Yukon. [31:30] That's all done through that coordinating table that works pan provincially across governments across the provinces and obviously with the federal government as well. [31:41] We do have two dash eights. [31:43] So thank you for that as well that are coming from the federal government that have fire retardant suppression. [31:48] That's the red fluid that you see that gets dropped out of the planes. [31:51] So they've been able to procure some of those on contracts, so we'll be able to leverage some of those. [31:57] And we also have something in the neighbourhood of about 80 contracted aircraft here in the province. [32:02] So we don't necessarily own them, but they are here in Ontario at our disposal. [32:06] So I would say at any given time, we've got somewhere between 100 to 120 aircraft, about 80 suppression aircraft between planes and helicopters, [32:16] and then another sort of 30 to 40, we'll call them support aircraft that move crews, that move equipment around. [32:25] So we're always looking to procure more. [32:29] You know, the premier has said we'll spare no expense, and we'll continue to move forward to make sure that we keep people safe here in the province. [32:35] Thank you. [32:35] Last question. [32:41] Well, absolutely, more help is on the way. [32:43] We've requested it. [32:44] Some of it's here on the ground. [32:45] Some of it's coming. [32:46] But we also have to recognise that you were asking a little bit about U.S. partners. [32:51] We're part of the Great Lakes Fire Compact. [32:52] There is well over 500 wildfires burning in the U.S. right now as well. [32:57] And we've certainly got a lot of challenges across Canada. [33:00] We've seen some new fires pop up in Nova Scotia over the last couple of days, [33:03] challenges out in British Columbia, the Northwest Territories. [33:07] So we're working as collaboratively as we can with our partners, and the offer to help is out there. [33:14] And please, anybody that's listening that's got good ideas or that maybe has, you know, [33:20] if you're part of an organisation or a company that thinks they can help, [33:24] we're always happy to entertain that and see what's going on here in the province. [33:27] Thank you, everybody. [33:28] We really appreciate your time today. [33:29] Thank you for coming. [33:30] Thanks, everybody.