{"id":191754,"date":"2018-11-30T01:10:19","date_gmt":"2018-11-30T06:10:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=191754"},"modified":"2018-11-30T01:10:19","modified_gmt":"2018-11-30T06:10:19","slug":"manitoba-signs-deal-for-fire-suppression-service-with-private-firm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/11\/30\/manitoba-signs-deal-for-fire-suppression-service-with-private-firm\/","title":{"rendered":"Manitoba signs deal for fire suppression service with private firm"},"content":{"rendered":"
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“We view this as a minimum of $1 million a year savings,” Schuler said. (File Photo<\/a>: Ron Schuler\/Twitter<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

WINNIPEG \u2014 The Manitoba government has signed a deal with a private firm to take over operation of the province’s fleet of water bombers and other wildfire fighting services.<\/p>\n

Babcock\u00a0Canada\u00a0and Air Spray will run and house the water bombers, while the provincial government will continue to own the aircraft, Infrastructure Minister Ron Schuler said Thursday.<\/p>\n

The aircraft will only be deployed outside the province when they are not needed locally, Schuler said.<\/p>\n

He said the deal will save the province money because Babcock will provide some additional aircraft \u2014 so-called \u201cbird dogs\u201d that lead water bombers to the scene \u2014 as well as new hangar space that the province would otherwise have to fund.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe view this as a minimum of $1 million a year savings,\u201d Schuler said.<\/p>\n

The Progressive Conservative government did not release the contract with the private firms, citing an ongoing search for private operators for other aircraft services including the province’s air-ambulance planes.<\/p>\n

The Opposition New Democrats said the privatization could put people at risk. Private firms will take profits from the funding, leaving less for front-line work, they said.<\/p>\n

The NDP also said it’s unfair that workers on the government fleet will now have to reapply for their jobs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere’s no guarantee that some, any or all will actually get those jobs,\u201d New Democrat legislature member Tom Lindsey said.<\/p>\n

Schuler said some other Canadian provinces, such as British Columbia, already use private firms to fight wildfires.<\/p>\n

The move is part of the Tory government’s ongoing efforts to cut the deficit and balance the budget by 2024 while also fulfilling a commitment to cut the provincial sales tax by one percentage point.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WINNIPEG \u2014 The Manitoba government has signed a deal with a private firm to take over operation of the province’s …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":191755,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-191754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-news","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}