{"id":724096,"date":"2026-06-09T00:33:36","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T00:33:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/724096\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T00:33:36","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T00:33:36","slug":"wildfire-season-canada-preps-evacuation-centres","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/724096\/","title":{"rendered":"Wildfire season: Canada preps evacuation centres"},"content":{"rendered":"

OTTAWA \u2014 The federal government says it\u2019s helping to set up evacuation centres across the country for people fleeing wildfires.<\/p>\n

At a recent news conference in Ottawa, Emergency Preparedness Minister Eleanor Olszewski said Ottawa would work with the provinces and territories to choose locations for the evacuation centres.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s something that we\u2019re working on in conjunction with a number of provinces, is a plan for where some set evacuation centres could be so that they are ready, that they\u2019re an appropriate size,\u201d she said on May 28.<\/p>\n

Last year\u2019s wildfire season was the second-worst on record, with nearly nine million hectares consumed \u2014 larger than the area of New Brunswick and P.E.I. combined and more than double the 10-year average.<\/p>\n

Olszewski said having evacuation centres in place would help organizations like the Canadian Red Cross make plans in advance.<\/p>\n

\"\"Minister of Indigenous Services Mandy Gull-Masty speaks in the Foyer of the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, on Friday, May 8, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Spencer Colby Minister of Indigenous Services Mandy Gull-Masty speaks in the Foyer of the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, on Friday, May 8, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Spencer Colby <\/p>\n

Indigenous Services Minister Mandy Gull-Masty said last year was \u201cexceptionally extreme\u201d in terms of evacuations and authorities struggled to find hotel rooms for all evacuees.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that there\u2019s a little bit more work that needs to be done in this space,\u201d Gull-Masty said at the same recent press conference.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve received this year many proposals from First Nations that have interest in working in this space, in creating culturally safe evacuation spaces. And I\u2019ve even seen the example of communities that are creating evacuation centres to receive other First Nations into their territory.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year saw the highest-ever number of long-term evacuations of First Nations communities due to wildfires \u2014 21 communities were forced to flee for longer than 60 days.<\/p>\n

\"\"Eleanor Olszewski, minister of emergency management, speaks to reporters in the foyer of the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Tuesday, April 21, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Sean Kilpatrick Eleanor Olszewski, minister of emergency management, speaks to reporters in the foyer of the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Tuesday, April 21, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Sean Kilpatrick <\/p>\n

Olszewski\u2019s office said it\u2019s up to the provinces and Indigenous communities to decide where the evacuation centres will be set up, and to operate them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen requested through a request for federal assistance, the federal government can provide coordination, logistical support, and additional resources to assist affected jurisdictions,\u201d said Soraya Lemur, Olszewski\u2019s press secretary.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will continue working closely with all orders of government to help ensure Canadians impacted by wildfires, and other emergencies, receive the support they need.\u201d<\/p>\n

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 8, 2026<\/p>\n

Nick Murray, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OTTAWA \u2014 The federal government says it\u2019s helping to set up evacuation centres across the country for people…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":724097,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194295],"tags":[49,48,83,47,20739,714,715],"class_list":["post-724096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ottawa","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-disaster","tag-national","tag-ottawa","tag-politics","tag-social"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=724096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724096\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/724097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=724096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=724096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=724096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}