WILDFIRE VICTIMS FURIOUS AS MOE GOVERNMENT ILL-PREPARED — AGAIN — FOR WILDFIRE SEASON

Four Water Bombers Grounded, Missing Nearly One Year After Disastrous Fires

SASKATOON – Carla Beck’s team is hearing deep frustration and concern from the people of Saskatchewan’s North after information surfaced Thursday that two water bombers require maintenance that will keep them grounded until another, another won’t arrive until August and a fourth seemingly has gone missing entirely

“Wildfire season started in April, but we will not have our full water bomber complement until August,” said Jordan McPhail, Shadow Minister for Northern Affairs.

“This is not just a bad status quo, but Scott Moe is actually going backwards on protecting the communities he abandoned last year.”

In Question Period on Thursday, Community Safety Minister Michael Weger, appointed after the previous Minister was dismissed from the role for his failures during the 2025 wildfire season, confirmed that two water bombers will be undergoing maintenance until July, and a third will not be delivered until August.

“The wildfire that destroyed 200 homes in Denare Beach last year swept through the community in June — how can these guys possibly justify not having their fleet ready until August, if ever?” McPhail said.

“Now we have a new Minister, saying the same lines, with the same strategy, and the same deflection claiming it will have a better outcome. It is an insult to my constituents who watched their homes burn while Scott Moe and Tim McLeod sat on their hands and claimed everything was fine.”

Beck’s team has heard from countless contacts since the information about the bombers came to light. McPhail was joined for a Friday news conference in Saskatoon by Denare Beach resident Rhonda Werbicki, whose family home of 26 years burned to the ground last year.

“The lack of transparency and now this new information only increases the anxiety for all of us,” Werbicki said. “The trauma we experienced, we absolutely prayed, would be once in a lifetime. With a government so unwilling to be honest and do the real work to keep our communities safe, we are all left wondering if we are only weeks away from re-living that nightmare.”

In Question Period, Michael Weger deflected calls to immediately release a long-awaited MNP report reviewing the wildfire’s response. The Sask. Party rejected calls for months for an independent inquiry in the wake of the wildfire disaster last year.

“The people of the north deserved a public inquiry,” said McPhail. “Instead, it appears that what will get is sanitized, politically motivated review designed to protect the Premier and Ministers who golfed while homes and communities burned.

“People of the North deserve better — all Saskatchewan people do. It really is time for change.”

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