Wildrose calls for inquiry into Fort McMurray wildfire disaster

The Wildrose Party is calling on Alberta’s NDP government to conduct a judge-led inquiry into the prevention efforts and response to the Fort McMurray wildfire.

The Wildrose made the call on Thursday for a similar investigation to one conducted in Australia after several people died in the 2015-16 wildfire season from rural brush fires.

Wildrose Leader Brian Jean insisted it wasn’t about politics.

“It’s not about a witch hunt. It’s about getting to the bottom of it and making things better.”

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Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo MLA for the Wildrose, Tony Yao, said the inquiry offers an opportunity to better our emergency response mechanisms.

“As a former emergency first responder, and talking to a lot of my former colleagues, I can guarantee there’s a lot of learnings to be had from this incident,” said Yao.

“They certainly didn’t follow past practices of other incidents, and also they didn’t take any learnings from the Slave Lake fire.”

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Jean admits the inquiry would cost millions of dollars, but it would be a good investment in the long run.

“I believe this is a way to save potentially billions and billions of dollars, least alone the emotional stress and trauma that people have gone through as a result of this.”

One year later, damage has been tallied at $6 billion, and economic impact at $10 billion, making the Fort McMurray fire the costliest disaster in Canadian history.

In the Legislature Thursday, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley said an independent inquiry would be premature. During question period, Notley said two independent reports into the wildfire will soon be in government hands.

“It is really quite ridiculous that the member opposite would be calling for a public inquiry before he’s reviewed one single fact from either one of the two independent reports that have been commissioned by the government of Alberta,” said Notley.

Jean said he has first-hand information on what he calls negligence in the handling of the response to the fire, but would not reveal the information out of fear it will prejudice an inquiry.

With files from the Canadian Press.