PRINCE ALBERT - It continues to be a challenging situation fighting wildfires in northern Saskatchewan.
In the latest update from Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency, the situation as of 11 a.m. Saturday morning is that there are 16 fires currently active. Seven are not contained, five are contained, three are an ongoing assessment and one is protecting property. The total number of fires to this point in 2025 is 211, well above the five-year average of 128.
Premier Scott Moe was on hand for the news conference alongside federal minister Buckley Belanger and a number of northern First Nations Chiefs and Vice-Chiefs. The message Moe had to the public was to be careful and not to start human caused fires.
"Please, everyone in this province, just be very, very aware, very careful in all you're doing. If that is going into a zone where there may be active wildfires to help or to retrieve some of your properties, to be very careful," Moe said.
In an important announcement Saturday from Premier Moe, SaskTel is waiving overage fees for customers affected the wildfires. As well, SaskTel customers who were forced to leave their homes due to wildfires will not be charged for television, internet or home phone services.
The situation in the North has seen very dry conditions and those are expected to continue though their is the prospect of some light rain. Moe said the "next four to seven days are absolutely critical until we can find our way to a change in weather patterns and ultimately a soaking rain throughout the North."
Premier Moe spoke of more potential evacuations to come. Moe said these were incredibly stressful and challenging times for those that are living in the north" for those "that may have been evacuated already or are preparing to and facing evacuation and we may see some additional evacuation in the days ahead."
In speaking of the challenges, Moe noted the road to Sandy Bay had not been accessible this morning. "It is accessible as we speak now but again a very volatile situation with respect to that road. We have Sturgeon Landing that was evacuated this morning and if we don't see rain in the near future unfortunately we likely are going to have additional evacuations in the days ahead.
"And so to those that I know are facing just a very challenging and stressful time I ask the rest of us in this province to reach out to those friends and family members that you might have and offer supports if you are able. But most certainly reach out and support the people that are having their very lives upset in their homes threatened by the weather conditions and ultimately the fires that we have."
President Marlo Pritchard provided the latest update and said the major fires of note going on right now are as follows:
The SHOE fire is the Lower Fishing Lake and Narrow Hills Provincial Park areas. Its size is 305,343 hectares and it is not contained.
The JAYSMITH Fire northeast of Missinippi, currently 33,642 hectares in size. Crews are still working on hotsports around Brabant Lake is under threat from this fire.
The PISEW Fire is located west of La Ronge and listed at 61,205 hectares.
The WOLF Fire west of Denare Beach is near the McIlveena Mine site. The current size of the fire is 30,000 hectares. and it is not contained.
The PELICAN2 fires northeast of Pelican Narrows is 9,154 hectares in size not contained.
The CLUB Fire north of Creighton is not contained and is 25,000 hectares. The priority is to continue to protect the communities of Creighton and Denare Beach and additional fire resources have been deployed.
The DITCH fire north of Weyakwin is 9706.8 hectares and not contained, and continues to have impacts on highway 2. Also because of that fire there has been an evacuation of Ramsey Bay.
The fire ban and the prohibition on ATVs and UTVs continues. There have also been severa evacuations by this point, the largest being Pelican Narrows at 2,000, Foran Mine 600, Creighton - Denare Beach- Jan Lake at 400, Hall Lake 380, and Lower Fishing Lake at 280, and there are a number of others.
In terms of resources going to fight the fire, Moe pointed to "220 provincial wildland firefighters that are on the ground on the very front face of that fire." He also pointed to 13 additional municipal fire departments in communities helping defend the fire lines.
He pointed to 66 contractors with various levels of heavy equipment t working on the front fire line,100 staff coordinating everything that is going on,12 Saskatchewan aircraft tankers and airplanesin the air, 410 Type 2 Northern community and Indigenous firefighters on the front lines, 20 to 30 helicopters in the air and a number of firefighting resources that have arrived from other jurisdictions. Those are from the Yukon, Quebec, and recently Arizona, Alaska, and Oregon.
There are two Q400 aircraft from Alaska deployed in Saskatchewan with air personnel as well as CL415 aircraft from Quebec.
There have been reports that resources are stretched thin. Premier Moe acknowledged that is the case, but noted “they are stretched thin because of the situation in the North."
Minister Belanger, who represents northern Saskatchewan in Parliament, pledged the full cooperation of the federal government.
"The last number of days we've had numerous meetings with numerous ministers, everything from the National Defence to Indigenous Services Canada. And the process over the last two or three days has become more and more important and more pressing. And the Prime Minister called all his ministers together, including myself, and said, 'okay, folks, we're going to do all we can to help Saskatchewan out in this particular challenge that they have.'"
Belanger said that "on behalf of the Prime Minister and the federal government, we're pleased to be here today to listen, to learn, and to support the people that have gone through this crisis. And also to sit down with the Premier and say anything that the federal government can do, we'll do all we can to assist in this regard."
