THUNDER BAY — Three First Nations organizations in Northwestern Ontario are getting significant new funding to support the training of wildland firefighters.
Some of the training will take place in Thunder bay.
Keewaytinook Okimakanak, which represents six remote First Nations, will use $329,000 to to help train 25 youth in wildfire prevention and mitigation to build up local fire management practices and enhance community resiliency to forest fires.
In Sioux Lookout, the Independent First Nations Alliance, which includes five First Nations, is getting $2 million to train 50 participants and increase the capacity for managing fires at the local level.
The Whitefeather Community Resource Management Authority will use an allocation of just under $1.6 million for firefighter training for 144 community members on the Pikangikum First Nation.
Trainees will receive Type ll training as part of an effort to develop a firefighting workforce that can be mobilized quickly when required.
The money to all three groups will be disbursed over a three-year period.
It comes from the federal government's Fighting and Managing Wildfires in a Changing Climate Program training fund.
