For Immediate Release
July 17, 2023
Jordan Brown, MHA Labrador West, is demanding that government give an update on efforts to help the retention of water bomber pilots in the province.
“It came to my attention this weekend that the province was down to only one water bomber available. That puts great stress on the pilots and crew as well as leaving the province in a vulnerable situation.
“We have already lost a number of the pilots and we need to make the rest want to stay. Without decent compensation and the opportunity or flexibility to have time off, we are under threat of the program collapsing.
“With the forest fire situation in Canada this year, we will not be able to depend on another province coming to our rescue as quickly as we may need the aid. The province has had 88 fires recorded so far this year.
“Government cannot throw their hands up and continue to blame the recruitment and retention issues on the global market. We cannot do anything about the global market but we can make sure to keep the pilots we do have here by increasing their compensation and committing to deal with work life balance issues.
Our water bomber pilots under resourced and stressed out. The time to act is now. Government needs to stop sitting on its hands.”
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For further information, contact Eddy St. Coeur, Director of Communications, NDP Caucus at 729-2137 (o), or eddystcoeur@gov.nl.ca