New waterbombers on order for Ontario
The Ministry of Natural Resources will have more waterbombers at its disposal in the future.
Minister Mike Harris revealed at Queen’s Park on Monday that more waterbombers have been purchased.
“I am very proud to stand up here today and say that Ontario is procuring six brand new water bombers to the tune of $500 million,” says Harris.
Harris made the statement in response to questions from the NDP.
The Minster adds that they will also have enough pilots available to fly the current fleet, and others when they are made available.
“We have a full complement of pilots this year to be able to fly our various equipment,” says Harris.
“We’ll be making sure that we have contracts signed with our supplementary pilots and helicopter pilots, and we’ve actually been able to reach an agreement with the unions to be able to pay our firefighters and our pilots more.”
The official start to the forest fire season was on April 1st.
As of Monday, there have only been two wildland fires.
