Province planning to hire one less air tanker group this year

The provincial government is expecting to save $2 million by hiring one less air tanker group this year, but that doesn’ t mean any of the water-bomber bases in Alberta, like the one west of Lac La Biche, will be left high and dry.

Instead, it means aircraft will likely be moving around the province more, depending on where their services are needed.

The local air tanker base, located adjacent to the Lac La Biche Airport, has hosted firefighting water-bomber airplanes for several decades.

With the province’ s cost-saving plan, the number of contracts between the government and aerial firefighting company Conair will be reduced to eight from nine this year.

“One of their contracts won’ t be renewed,” said Duncan MacDonnell, spokesperson for Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development. MacDonnell noted that the government would be able to quickly re-enter that contract, if needed.

Air tanker groups, each led by an air attack officer in a spotter airplane, drop loads of fire retardant and water on wildfires from above-hence the nickname water-bombers.

Over the years, the airplanes have taken on many shapes, from slightly reconditioned Second World War B-26s to the large, yellow CL-215 “Ducks” and, most recently, the air tractor machines.

When not flying, the aircraft and their pilots are on standby at one of 12 air tanker bases throughout Alberta. The base in Lac La Biche County serves the Lac La Biche Forest Protection Area, which covers the region between Athabasca and the border of Saskatchewan.

During the 2014 fire season, the air tanker squadron based in this community was one of only two double groups in the province. The other was based in Slave Lake.

With the government planning not to renew one contract with Conair this year, MacDonnell says the aerial firefighting fleet across Alberta will likely have six fewer air tractors and one less spotter aircraft.

That means resource-sharing agreements will come into play, he says, with aircraft being redistributed on an as-needed basis.

It’ s not unusual for air tanker groups to be summoned away from their base communities. Last year, Lac La Biche’ s water-bombers flew to the Northwest Territories to help battle a series of long-burning wildfires in the Great Slave Lake area. In their absence, a squadron of CL-215s from Quebec occupied the tarmac in case of a local emergency.

Fire season began on March 1. Air tanker groups are normally deployed throughout the province in late spring and remain until the fall.