Ontario Premier Doug Ford visited northern communities on July 18 as wildfires continued to spread across the region and First Nations leaders expressed “frustration with the bureaucratic processes” surrounding the province’s evacuation procedures.
Rescue teams were engaged in 40 missions to rescue 300 campers and other individuals not in communities, Ford said while speaking at a news conference in Thunder Bay, Ont.
The comments come three days after the Chiefs of Ontario issued a statement calling on the federal and provincial governments to provide coordinated emergency support for First Nations across northern Ontario whose communities were threatened by wildfires.
First Nations leaders were holding meetings to discuss plans to declare states of emergencies and evacuate communities, it said….